italy shuts down production of all non-essential goods. toll in the country surges by almost $800.00 in a single day and russia a plane load of aid that the crisis. france police officers threaten to quit unless they are provided with equipment to protect themselves from the virus. volkswagen becomes the latest car giant to halt production due to the 1000 outbreak as the pandemic puts ever more jobs. and u.s. senators are accused of insider trading after they sold off their stocks just

before the recent crash. in moscow this is our international thomas certainly glad to have you with us we start with breaking news this hour italy is shutting down all production of non-essential goods due to the 19 pandemic prime minister just said because made that announcement in the past hour the disease has now claimed almost 13000 lives worldwide the number of confirmed cases is edging towards 300000. italy has seen nearly 800 fatalities in the past 24 hours alone the pandemic has now killed more than 404800 talian significantly more than in china russia is

stepping up in italy to help the defense ministry will be sending a planeload of disinfection equipment along with 8 teams of viral exists to the country starting on sunday see what is dawn of earlier joining my colleague jacqueline ruga earlier in the studio with details. there is no other place in the world where it is as bad as it is in italy right now so amid this crisis russia is indeed going to help out so what is it doing firstly moscow will be sending personal protection to italians such things as mosques for example also russia is promising to ship mobile disinfection units truck based essentially so that italians can air assault the streets with in fact and spray also russia will be sending some medical equipment to help diagnose and treat more italians all of that will be it will be shipped through the russian defense ministry in this small school is joining beijing's efforts china has already promised to to help out

italians china being the 1st country the origin country of the covert 19 so obviously they have right now they have way more experience with dealing and containing this disease than any other country in the world and the situation in italy is indeed for instance some italians have been massively outraged when it was revealed that the country allowed the united states to ship out of italy and into tennessee. almost half a 1000000 of covert 1000 testing kids italians saying that how on earth can this be going on when they are dying by the hundreds in italy and there's not enough means to help the italians and their government is giving it just giving it away in the past 24 hours alone almost 800 italians have died let that let the figures

sink in for a moment in just the past 24 hours now this number is particularly large because italy is stressing that they are counting not just those who were killed by covert 1000 itself but also they're counting those who died of preexisting conditions that were because of covert 1000 so this for. 800 almost 800. is these 2 groups of people combined so this whole thing has put a massive strain on funeral homes and and in fact crematoria are saying that they might stop accepting new bodies because they're overwhelmed. obviously this situation creates an abnormal amount bringing us to an emergency phase making us very likely to hold for a few days in order to be able to recover some space. for us to use our premises dedicated for the final farewell as you can see this farewell room has become a provisional space so just to give you another example in the town of birth and

it's only some some bodies are literally out there in the streets waiting to be waiting to be burnt in the current toria because they simply cannot it's a small town and it has been hit particularly hard. even even by italy's standards and so a lot of people are dying but their bodies cannot be all processed by the existing means also for instance in palermo in sicily soldiers patrolling the streets to ensure that people are indeed stay home and not expose themselves dangerous so it is really bad and it seems that russia's help will be more than welcome at this time of crisis and italian lawyers association earlier addressed an appeal to president putin it mentioned of the european union's lack of support during the crisis we heard from one of the people who attended that letter alexandro maria to rally the president of italy's criminal chambers of

a european and international law one of the people who has it mentioned before already and that letter. can you understand very well the reason why italians are not very very happy because as you know as they your old time and they're required to access to this you know to the central bureau and we are completely aware that in case of need we don't receive almost everything we eat direct it should russian federation because we understood that you wrote was not you know very trustful on there this is this is reality and i have a very clear provision that. could be just 2nd kountry after u.k. to move out from european union. spy the tragedy unfolding in italy there are some positive stories one doctor from the city of. who like thousands of his

colleagues across the country is battling the disease recently became a father for the 3rd time. i was on duty in the covered 19 ward when my wife who herself had previously tested positive for the corona virus went into labor but i still tried to stay in touch with her as much so i could and i heard from her until the moment she was taken for a c section my friends and colleagues from the hospital she was asked me know as soon as my daughter hannah was born they told me she and my wife were right my biggest fear at the time was that my wife would have a risperidone crisis during the delivery and would end up in intensive care that didn't happen we were very lucky i mean my little girl was tested for kovi jointing and the result was negative that we would tell our daughter that she was born in a very difficult time for europe but that she was holding out like a really morea and we will tell them how much we love. them factious disease specialist robert okada believes that the lockdown in italy needs to continue to

prevent an even worse catastrophe. there epidemic is a dramatic and we are facing a very big epidemic we should keep a very strict measures. down in order to reduce the literary still spreading the virus at the same extent that in the central sixty's and in this on the part that of so us remember especially in the north the reason a shortage of. such as a physician nurses able to face of these that demi very few infectious disease expert our available now with the and it is a whole sort defective at a considerable number of health care workers has been put on an 8 that and they are not working optimistic view is are defective that day by day.

constant percentage of increase of the new cases in respect of the total number of our target our goal is to reach as soon as possible the level 'd of all below 10 which means about the transmission as a celebrated that and we can look at the future with a little more hold. persians have paid a tribute to to the doctors and nurses on the front line applause was heard from balconies across the capital on friday night. i be. more than 14000 cases have been confirmed in france with 562 dead all regions are now affected despite a nationwide lockdown the french health system is under a lot of strain a french union shared with r t france a statement from one medic who volunteered to work with corona virus infected

patients. my 1st day in intensive care for corona virus patients. on time for 12 hours in closed premises i want to share my feelings today i've seen terrible things and i've never in my life seen such images. seen people in critical condition. because of everything that. take care of. everyone. meanwhile police officers enforcing the lockdown in france are threatening to go on strike they claim they do not have the basic equipment needed to protect themselves from the fires or to report. as millions of people in from own saw in confinement there is a cool group of workers who are continuing the daily grind including police offices .

yet many continue to fly out these regulations despite hefty fines and the risk of being locked up in jail. never mind. the authorities are tearing their hair out over france's citizens known compliance with the confinement restrictions. there are people who think they're modern day heroes by breaking the rules while they are in fact. when i see people still going to the park to get together or heading to the beach or to open markets they seem

not to understand the message from the authorities a lot of our fellow citizens are still taking this too likely but as they blame people for not abiding by the rules the authorities themselves are being accused of not taking proper care of those they placed on the front line unions are furious that the ministry of interior hasn't provided offices with basic equipment such as face mosques so much so the biggest police union has warned its members will walk out unless such things are made available there is no reason why we should be victims of a government failure to plan we want to carry out our duties to their fullest but need to be able to guarantee. our own safety if the police themselves become contaminated or strike who will monitor the streets seducer security offices police and other people who are. in the country where you need to be

protected all this parse does not distinguish between police medics and other citizens we're not even sure that we police officers not potentially infecting people when we do our checks so we need mosques and other protects quitting and to keep us safe and others. if the police get infected who will be able to keep the peace to morrow as ford says quarantine drags along each day the list of what citizens can do is being tightened the police are cool part of keeping order here if they walk out or if an infection takes hold within the ranks thrones could face an uphill battle to carry out its plans in the war on code 19 so much even ski ati cars the world's biggest automaker volkswagen is suspending production worldwide due to cover 19 the german firm built more than 10000000 vehicles last year c.e.o. or reduce explain from of given the present significant deterioration in the sale

situation and the heightened uncertainty regarding parts supplies to our plants production is to be suspended in the near future at factories operated by group bronze. the decision follows similar moves by other car manufacturers toyota b.m.w. renault ffion are among those who have shut their plants during the crisis in the e.u. alone the sector is responsible for around 14000000 jobs. in the latest episode of artes boom bust automotive expert lauren fix told us the industry will take a long time to recover. for the auto industry a global basis we're looking at a huge impact with every single manufacturer pretty much shutting down production we're not just talking about high end cars but every day cars we've already seen a huge negative downturn when it comes to china they're off by about 80 percent so far for the 1st quarter but that may change they're starting to get back on line but here in the u.s. we're looking at last year's sales at 17100000 cars. is recommending and they're

stating they're somewhere around $14900000.00 we have not seen a downturn like this since 2008 this is going to impact a lot of us because if you look at the dow jones half of it is impacted by the auto industry either by a supplier or something that supports the auto industry so this is going to be a huge impact and it's going to go a long time for us to recover. i don't to be to doom and gloom here but we have had gas after gas telling us we are already facing a recession maybe even a depression is coming will all of these auto manufacturers the giants will they make it out of this crisis or we could see consolidation what is going to happen moving forward. i think you're going to see some consolidation it makes sense that companies partner to share technology to share platforms to share drive trains everybody makes it to a leader turbo engine if more people start sharing that technology what that's going to do is allow them to make it personalized when it comes to the vehicle the features themselves so i think you're going to see

a lot of consolidation i don't think going to see anyone going out of business but the impact to the stocks is going to be a long time to turn around there's also some talk about the auto 'd industry wanting to delay the implementation of the u.s. embassy a trade deal known as the new nafta do you know what's going on there. yeah the us sense is supposed to start on june 1st but everyone's now off no one's working and so this is a problem so they can't get the regulations in place so they're asking to push it back to delay because that's going to make 75 percent of cars being built here for north america using north american components which is good for restarting the industry but we don't have the regulations in place that are asking to push it back just a little bit it's supposed to go in place june 1st and that all depends on this pandemic and how long it takes for us to start we're covering the pandemic has left many people out of work the u.s. jobless rate has surged with several $100000.00 new claims in the past few weeks a comma mr jeffrey tucker says the financial shock will be unlike anything in

modern history there's a word for that i don't even think economists have but it's not recession it's not it's it's it's imaginable levels of of shock and the data are going to. give you a clear prediction what the unemployment numbers are going to look like that we're going to be seeing soon but i almost certain that millions have already lost their jobs and this just cannot go on much longer without dismantling everything we call civilized life it just it just cannot go so the pressure is growing by the day by the hour by the minute or for the politicians to line up their decisions public policy decisions with actual documented health risks which are becoming ever clearer as testing has is going on. several u.s. senators are in the spotlight for selling off millions of dollars of shares just

before the recent stock market crash that story and much more in a short break this is art international. the last 10 or 15 years we've moved to the era of big data where so much from our reality and our environment in our society is governed by experts interpreting data and now thanks to coronavirus this is all being stripped away it's all nonsense that corona virus is now bringing back to america some intuitive sense of self-reliance is going to be a difficult adjustment don't get me wrong. join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business i'm showbusiness i'll see you then.

go to rio for a little bit messy by our d.n.a. in some way over look at me i'm not sure this is such a great thing you know i'm sure you look better now than when you had hair how. long it's nice for you to say so but i do i went bold when i was 2500 miles and so create them. this is art international now 4 u.s. senators are being accused of cashing in on the global pandemic through insider trading they offloaded millions of dollars worth of shares just before the market nosedived allegedly using their privileged access to information one of them is north carolina republican senator richard burr or does kill him up and has. richard

burr u.s. senator and head of the senate intelligence committee reassured everyone that the u.s. government had the coronavirus situation completely under control here's what he said back in march luckily we have a framework in place that says put is in a better position than any other country to respond to a public health threats like the coronavirus his words sounded quite calming especially from someone who receives daily briefings about the spread of the coronavirus although a few days earlier he was telling a group of wealthy donors and constituents of a very different story here's a secret recording of richard burr speaking at the capitol hill club. she is. probably. you need to. hurry even offered some advice to his wealthy friends every company should be cognizant of the fact that you may have to travel you might have to look at your employees and judge

whether the trip they're making to europe is essential or whether it can be done on a video conference why risk is needless to say accusations are now flying that richard burr used his capitol hill inside info to help out his pals financially you remember when the stock market tanked right stock market futures are pointing to a higher open after the biggest point drop in history the dow losing more than 2000 points today a lot of investors repriced that the crash we started to. 1000 point swing on the dow here's over the coronavirus leading to the biggest point drop in dow history today well richard burr was pretty well unaffected because he on loaded up to $1700000.00 of his stocks just a week before the plunge now he says this is not because of any insider information he had overnight solely on public news reports to guide my decision regarding the sale of stocks on february the 13th but richard burr is not the only capitol hill to well or to make some slick stock market moves at just the right time.

as into tam and sent to bergen private briefings the coronavirus works and then you know how bad it would be to tell the truth to heels bounce of dollars sure in the public that we will find that he sold off one pound 6000000 tons before the home he needs to resign senates a bush should resign and prepared to spend some quality time with a federal grand jury that maybe there's an honest explanation for what he did if there is he should share it with the rest of us immediately otherwise he must resign from the senate and face prosecution for insider trading now all of them are

saying they had no control over these investment decisions they're also emphasizing that this was just good luck they had no insider knowledge well looks pretty bad especially for a senator burr in law who are pretty well connected of course senator byrd the chairman of the senate intelligence committee he was privy to you know secret briefings on the coronavirus and what the response to the coronavirus was going to be and how bout it. he's all of that would be a big problem for him as for the the senator from georgia she has another problem and that her husband is the chairman of the new york stock exchange presumably pretty well connected and she's on a committee that oversees the health industry the bigger picture here is that we have public servants we have members of congress who are using their power and position not only in stock trades the problem is that the u.s. government has too much goodies to give out so it's impossible for these for some

of these people to resist i mean a national crisis americans want their political leaders to be solving problems managing the issues and getting things done it seems like they're certainly doing that but on a more personal level scale pop and r. t. new york meanwhile the u.s. secretary of state my pompei or has accused several countries including russia of spreading false information about the pandemic. issue of disinformation is there any particular locus for this decision or mission or is it diffuse is pretty diffused unfortunately but we've certainly seen it come from places like china and russia and iran but there are coordinated efforts to disparage what america is doing in our cavity to to do all the things at present trying to set in motion here because there's well accusations against russia disinformation and takes about the coronavirus spread and europe and the whole world are being disinformation and fake themselves let's take a look at the presumption of innocence is there are. avid incidents now of them

there can be any claims. it can be used as a part of such an aggressive or informational. earlier donald trump placed the blame for the spread of the coronavirus had china's door that the situation would now be better if he had known about the virus earlier the president added that the world was paying a very big price for beijing's suppose it in action joined in the blame game accusing china of putting lives at risk now trying the foreign ministry spokesperson issued an angry response telling pump able to stop lying she noted that china's efforts have actually saved lives citing reports from the world health organization. and thai war activists can stay on things washington's accusations follow a long running pattern of blaming others for its mistakes. while the whole world's been looking out with our admiration at the way socialist countries such as china and cuba how candled this pandemic. the us administration has been exposed

completely as an effort in dealing with the corona virus trump has discovered that the easiest most least controversial way to deal with a problem in the us is simply to blame it on russia or china. all right many people facing quarantine at home are turning to video streaming services to pass the time and providers are struggling to cope with the extra traffic is probably boyko found out. self isolation where being on ist is as much about spending time with netflix as it is about saving your ground law from coronavirus. catching up on your favorite shows that i am getting quite content guilt free. and not highest definition but as we're all settling in to this quarantined

stream of thought on france though which are animal videos. it's meant 6 and you have let us all down this cern concern that the volume of netflix and chilling which is about to take place will break the internet very reducing less streaming quality by 25 percent just when we needed to the most guys pornhub is offering its premium content for free now that it's custom a 7. for me this hour i'll be back in about 33 minutes with another look you know stay with us the star to international . see. this outbreak really highlights that our system for global governance is

weak and that not only is it. regulations which dozens of countries are currently violating but it's just the broader system in which we tackle these challenges and i think this highlights we need to do you better in the future i mean for one thing certainly when so many countries are breaking international curricula actions to make sense to revisit that instruments after this outbreak is over but also our system more broadly for how we govern those challenges that transcend national borders.

that. don't conform to the sale of. the install what that he took us to think in the reaching a law school. also not a place to park it does monkey seem to do something you would you eat at all forms . of i thought was about i'd seen a forest in the york at loggerheads with one of the people have no idea. that it's . all that screw up on the hill to get it. that. you want their plea he checked 1st.

example right. and then you state your case. this month and the 1st time with adults and kids in the us meaning it is legal he was. caught doing it this is not to say what do ya so why you.