like. the german government has to gradually the nationwide. break is under control however king shelters there have seen infections rise dramatically also to. a larger state sponsored pandemics and this is the 3rd or 4th pandemic that came out of china u.s. politicians continue to blame china with one republican senator pushing washington

to respond sanctions and also to come. to. the holy fire in jerusalem as orthodox the celebrations get underway although thousands of churches around the world do stand empty and. hello there you with art international this saturday evening it's just gone 10 o'clock here in moscow ok let's start with some of the latest numbers that we have on the break because confirmed cases and cases of my past 2300000 more than 158000 people have died from the virus most of those fatalities are in europe and also the u.s. so far just over 591000 patients have recovered from the disease.

now the corona virus outbreak in germany does appear to be under control after a month long lockdown according to the country's health minister germany has a much lower death rate than other major european countries and restrictions on movement so being partially lifted with some shops able to reopen is it really is next week however a government spokesperson has stressed that caution is needed. skipped. the city in fits there are no guarantees that the infection kovel keep flattening out there also risks when we take these small careful steps into opening up we must keep an eye on the infection curve and what it means for our health system and our hospitals as in many countries germany shut down has devastated the hospitality sector interest in restaurant workers to set out empty tables and chairs too on the

central square to highlight the crisis they are dealing with and they meaning people they're held a safe distance demonstration calling the lockdown disproportionate while most of the population is staying safe refugees in shelters are at much higher risk peter oliver reports on that. as germany gets set to ease coronavirus restrictions not everywhere in the country has been successful in stopping the spread of the virus some refugee centers have seen a spike in the number of cases at one in the south of the country almost half of the 600 residents tested positive this week do you feel mood and isolation we suspect that maybe people with coby 19 who've been in the facility for a long time and that they've shown no symptoms of the disease and that they could have passed on the virus the facility in but involved in book houses people from nigeria iraq syria turkey who are waiting to have their asylum applications process

the action taken by authorities to this localized outbreak is causing concern they're seeing these people as a kind of threat and danger it seems to be an acceptable strategy to pack the police outside and make sure nobody comes in and nobody comes out another center not far from frankfurt there's a similar picture with around 60 residents testing positive out of 170 in the far northeast of the country the refugee council of mecklenburg west pomerania has voiced some serious. cern's about an asylum application center on their patch. bad the required minimum distance of 1.5 to 2 meters cannot be maintained this is added and anyone who recklessly last people leave in a massacre mandation in this situation their health authorities in the region which just so happens to be represented in the border start by chancellor angela merkel

have been quick to rubbish criticism of the way coronavirus is being tackled among asylum applications in coordination with the health authorities every effort is being made to prevent the spread of infection within the country's primary care facilities and in communal accommodation in the current emergency situation infection control for asylum seekers and the population is a priority that comes as berlin is quite rightly being praised for having tackled coronavirus nationally in a robust and fact based way on friday health minister yen spahn described the situation in germany as under control you know that. we have moments to bring the dynamic growth back to linear growth the infection numbers have decreased significantly it's been she was relatively increases from day to day the outbreak has now become manageable and controllable again ultimately what these localized outbreaks in asylum sent to show is that if you drop your guard for just

a moment when it comes to fighting or trying to stop the spread of this virus then it will be exploited peter all of our r.t. berlin. president now says he expects between $60.65 americans to die of covert 19 although that is substantially less than his previous estimate of 100000 the president claims that the country's infection rate is paid and he's revealed plans to gradually ease the lock down treaty chavez has more on story. white house pushing to get the economy moving again our approach outlines 3 phases in restoring our economic life and we are not opening all at once but one careful step at a time issuing new guidelines to get the country up and running the 1st phase officials must see a 2 week decline in the number of people with cold it symptoms and the percentage

of people testing positive for the virus must also decrease than face to allowing all non-essential travel school activities and elective surgeries to continue some states will be able to open up sooner than others. but hard hit new york and new jersey have to wait state continues to see an increase in covert cases new york governor andrew cuomo extending stay at home orders he calls new york pause until may 15th but it could be longer what is the final conclusion of this rb chapter i still believe it when we have a vaccine with more than 226000 infections and more than 16000 deaths new york is still seeing around 2000 new cases a day city remaining the epicenter of the outbreak officials working to open testing sites in the city's poorest and hardest hit communities so we're talking about folks in some of the lowest income communities in the city people in communities of color that have borne the brunt of this crisis immigrant communities

while governor cuomo is issuing an executive order directing all public and private labs in new york to coordinate with the department of health to ensure prioritizing of diagnostic testing he says that's still not enough to test the millions of people needed to reopen new york's economy we don't have a testing system that can do this or there can be ramped up to do this one. we don't have a public health casting system by the way it's de minimis if you look at what our government departments of health have we need a good. needed approach between the federal government and the states right now the main testing lab for the state can perform about 300 antibody tests per day while officials believe they can grow that number to 2000 test a day in the coming weeks with nearly 20000000 residents in new york the governor says the state needs all the help they can get from the federal government. meanwhile u.s. politicians continue to blame china for the pandemic and the republican senator

lindsey graham suggested that washington should punish by using with sanctions. the largest state sponsor of pandemics this is the 3rd or 4th pandemic that came out of china what should we do to the largest state sponsor of pandemics on the globe which is saying china well since the coronavirus 1st paid in december numerous conspiracy theories have flooded the internet and an idea that the virus was created in a bio weapons lab in new hampshire has gained widespread coverage in the u.s. media to donald trump and his administration have been more than willing to few the speculation. that a lot of people are looking seems that make sense they talk about a certain kind of bet but that was it in that area if you can believe this is what they're doing to know is vets but that is not in that area that was in seoul that whetstone it wasn't sold there that bad is 40 miles away so

a lot of strange things are happening but there is a lot of investigation going on and we're going to find out if we know they have this lab we know about the wet markets we know that the virus itself did originate in and so all those things come together are still a lot we don't know. said they were member of the white house coronavirus task forces debunk the theory of the virus being created in a lab and to thank you here he is a leading expert on infectious diseases said the pattern of mutation showed the virus jump directly from an animal to human meanwhile china has the u.s. to stop making claims with no scientific basis. fishel to repeatedly stated that there is any evidence that you corona virus was produced treat many well known medical experts in the world also believe the so-called liberal talk to sis has no scientific basis the british foreign secretary

has echoed the anti china rhetoric coming from washington has said there can be no business as usual with beijing after the crisis and that hard questions did need to be asked about how the act break started journalist daniel desirea believes the brain gang being led by trump is merely a way of deflecting responsibility clearly what we're seeing here are the charges that are political in nature i mean trump has mishandled this whole crisis so. america has got a few cases having more cases than any other country in the world in a matter of 2 months and trump has contradictory half hearted in effect saying one thing one moment and another thing another moment so this crisis began so clearly trying to strike out and distract attention from his own there's more record. by attacking china that's just plain as the evidence so far as

the allegations that they're really fighting an uphill battle they have nothing to go on it's religious based on pure anti chinese. now another news as millions of orthodox christians around the world celebrate easter the holy fire has arrived here in moscow from jerusalem due to the lockdown restrictions though here in moscow the traditional meeting of the 5 which usually brings in thousands of the faithful has been cancelled the file will be to further delivered to the main russian temple the cathedral of christ savior or the pantry or moscow and all russia carol will hold the easter service holy fire is lit annually at the church of the house of poker and this event is a track prize interpol grinstein to a slim although it wasn't happening this year for a slave though has more on that so. the holy fire has always been a symbol of hope hope that the end of the world has not yet come but this easter

the most significant religious holiday for some 300000000 people things are different this easter is different we will not go to our villages we will not barbecue in our yards we will not go to our churches and of course we will not gather in the homes of relatives and friends for us to continue bringing together this year we stay apart there are no could find a procession snow hugs and kisses no joyous celebrations that christ has risen this is the main church where the miracle takes place but it is closed as part of a nationwide lockdown it's all part of the government's attempt to push back on the coronavirus and as a result is banned all mess gatherings something that has the country's ultra orthodox jewish community up in arms. i do not think that's right but those are.

all across the world churches urge people to pray and stay at home some churches even live stream through social media other christian communities celebrated easter 7 days ago with pope francis playing alone in. peter's square many christian churches urged programs to spend this holy day at home. now russia has registered more than $4700.00 coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours it is the highest single day increase so far and the death toll stands at $313.00 here in moscow the mayor has updated to digital pass system which had some glitches here in the week is now being automated though with more on the story his saskatoon. 15th of april new measures which is used here in the capital which is suffering the brunt of the creative virus in russia essentially has now a caste system which means that you need a passport everything specially to travel to and from what is now the most dramatic day announcing that passes do will be extended until the last major he did also

admit that the imposing of the past is jim didn't have its steve thing issues at the very beginning. so the main issue that we sold out was the time that was needed for sorties to visit to check each and every part of it which is why as part of the new match starting from the next wednesday the 22nd of may when everything will now be done. automatically so there's a cost with detroit because they used to chop on the match open from next wednesday you have to link your travel permit to that card so essentially if you don't do that and put your car down and try to get what the bar has just went open and be allowed to travel through we also saw a build up of cars especially in the size 24 hours of passes don't was introduced

we had stories of people waiting for up to several hours as authorities very diligently checks through all that documents that also is going to be made much more efficient because now cameras will be checking and scanning which cars have the white house and which tote now us against atlanta nuts the moscow magic you recognize of course this is not done for one. nation is causing my national and psychological distress to a lot of people but that it is necessary and that it is bringing results so in that mix he said that while the numbers of rising in russia that are actually not growing exponentially 'd and he actually to pad moscow to new york because the cities are roughly the same population and he said this so thought here in washington managed to avoid the development of that american it's. no you. can say the reports are not comfy the un is warning that economic hardship caused by nation wide shut downs could cost more lives than the coronavirus itself will have a look at why just after the break. a.

little.

so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy confrontation let it be an arms race in this spear in dramatic development only going to exist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical. to sit down. welcome back the head of the un's world food program has borne the economic shock of the coded 19 pandemic could in some countries be actually far deadlier than the virus itself he says at least 30000000 people are risk of dying of starvation if critical funding is cut from quarter reports. as the world's battle with the coronavirus rages on one has to wonder what will happen when the smoke clears tens

of millions of people are already dependent on the un's world food program for meals if that were to lose funding all of those people would be threatened with starvation if we lost all funding a minimum of $30000000.00 would die over a 3 month period that would be 300000 people dying per day that's why leaders have got to balance out the response with keeping the economy going because otherwise a lot more people will die from starvation and economic deterioration than from cope itself even before the pandemic the world had a serious food crisis on its hands the world economic forum says that over 820000000 people were going to bed hungry now many organizations are indicating that the situation can get much much worse with the with the global and the 1st of the beatles and the measures that they can place the board but we also believe that

will go pulled the food chain. to be able to hold up by low for consumers to move the potential risk over on the north point of course it's a crisis of the international markets under the lockdown the very supply chains of transnational corporations are breaking apart food can't be processed delivered or received between countries within countries everywhere for the developing world that means famine could be just around the corner especially now that humanitarian relief is also being obstructed by the lockdowns widespread poverty a reliance on imported food and rising prices are all a recipe for disaster according to the united nations for the millions living in lockdown countries that fit that criteria is running out across africa clashes between hungry people and the police are already taking place. was. many

governments of the developing world are struggling with a terrible dilemma see their people die from the coronavirus or see them die from starvation while in the developed world of the main dilemma is containing the corona virus through look downs and then dealing with the economic impact in the developing world apart from containing the virus and dealing with the economic crisis the biggest worry now is people dying of hunger that doesn't mean the journey from farm to plate isn't obstructed in the developed world in the united states dairy farms are dumping thousands of gallons of milk a day because they can't be sold at the same time retailers are fearing a shortage of milk and they're limiting the amount that consumers can buy as for fruits and vegetables $5000000000.00 worth had been wasted for the same reason one of america's largest pork processing plants has even been closed because of the virus the closure of this facility combined with a growing list of all the protein plants that have shifted across our industry is

pushing our country perilously close to the edge in terms of all meat supply and it is impossible to keep all grocery stores stalked if a plant not running the chaos of the free market is rearing its ugly head in more ways than just one week by week millions more are flocking to unemployment lines and food banks the early indicators of a global food crisis are there before our very eyes we should ask ourselves how much farther can the global food supply chain bend before it breaks when we spoke to a senior economist at the un's things and cultural can i say he told us that the crisis does need a concerted international response. than people who stay home and work as a stay home does obviously create disruptions to. value chain for food no food gets harvested then it has to be processed and it has to be put on the shelves obviously there may be disruption in this in this line because of the lockdown and because of

the fact that people look to seasonal workers cannot probably move around from one place to another so that is want to the problem and the other sort of problem is that not of people especially poor people if they don't go to work they don't have anything don't have the money they cannot buy the proof we are talking about also countries where man nutrition already is huge government would need to have you know finances of safety net to be able to reach these people and to make sure that they have a minimum of who is really needed the problem is these countries cannot afford it so they need help they need support and the help has to come from the richer countries if the richer countries today are very much engaged of course for their own people the message from the f.a. always do not forget the poor ones because it's a problem is not resolved locally you will come back and haunt everybody again. that britain's culture secretary is painting for people to come to buy

a paper as the newspaper industry fights what has being called its biggest existential crisis in history however online media including news papers websites are rising popularity with people on the last time said he came mainstream media has attracted criticism amid accusations of politicizing the keythe 19 crisis with a look at that his ego saddam of. when it comes to the british media and their coverage of the coronavirus pandemic lately there's been a heavy focus on russia's actions that's not in a good way you keep outlets have been criticizing everything from moscow's domestic response to its action on the international arena coronavirus in russia anger is spreading no wonder libya putin is self isolating putin seeks political point scoring 19 world crisis coronavirus what does from russia with love really mean so yes they've managed to put a negative spin even on russia sending aid to other struggling countries also

there's been a discrepancy you know how the u.k. media have been reporting very similar stories depending on whether or not the originates in russia take sky news for instance the outlet there's been painting a grim picture covering how the kremlin is said to monitor citizens movement to prevent the spread of the coronavirus at the same time the story about the u.k. government working on a cracking up got a positive vibe also when it comes to the british call that 1000 response criticism of the boris johnson government has been going hand in hand with encouraging headlines like praising the n.h.s. and reporting on how the royal family is beating the disease some outlets have even been defending the initial herd immunity strategy which was later scrapped for quarantine measures after the situation got out of control russia and again even

the aid it sends a broad doesn't get the luxury of recognition among u.k. media that's amid a severe crisis in britain's newspaper industry the pandemic has sent their ad sales into a nosedive and there are fears that some simply will not be able to survive the media has become very tame recently in the last few years long. tends to journalists the quality of journalism has dropped and a lot of journalists simply take these press releases from whatever government ministry and just regurgitate out even understanding the charm russia east presented as the big demon as it was has been. the point is that because of britain's failure to deal properly with the crisis is why we have already $15000.00 deaths compared to russia's $300.00 is an element of jealousy envy plus i have to say diversionary tactics to take away attention from what's going on in britain

because they started much too late we've got enough equipment people who need treatment for other diseases are dying but cetera et cetera use of possible statistical manipulation so because of our failings we're simply exporting the problem to the usual target i mean in short i always written would simply look at what the russian is doing and so ok well done chaps. quickly in other stories now recruit from the international space station has returned to earth to find a very different situation to when they left with us and russian members landed safely in kazakstan earlier after more than spending after spending more than 200 days in orbit as a precaution now against 19 they were greeted by a team that had spent a month under medical observation however amid the global lockdown the space travelers could find it tricky to get home eventually one cosmonaut does need to get to moscow to astronauts they need to get back to his stint in texas residents of 100 neighborhood have found a new way of communicating at the same time every evening they step back on to

their balconies in white more city. friends came up with this idea because they lived on the same street but were unable to leave their homes and the idea swiftly caught on spain has lost 20000 lives in the coronavirus making it be worst hit country in europe and the hospital in jakarta has to. medical robots assisting frontline health workers there is robot can deliver medicine to patients reims arriving doctors and nurses to keep a safe distance and an easy has over 5000 confirmed cases of 19 the most 500 deaths and that brings you up to date for this hour you can keep across all the latest developments on our social media channel and around the clock to of course we'll have live broadcasts from our studios here in moscow london and also washington d.c. stay informed with. join

me every 1st week on the alex simon short and i'll be speaking to us on the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then. you're watching going underground the whole team here hope you're all safe we're away until wednesday the 22nd of april but in the meantime we're screening somebody or favorite episodes of the year so far coming up in this show what does a u.s. funded u.k. lawyer mean when he references a case of secret cia nuclear warhead blueprint smuggling to iran as a benchmark for addition to virginia we talked to the espionage act convicted

former cia spy checked in court jeffrey sterling 24 hours ahead of the 120th birthday of the labor party whose trade unionist and socialist beginnings began a new age and political representation of the working class we ask a former labor cabinet minister whatever happened to raising the scarlet stamp of all the support coming up at today's going on the ground 1st extradition. seedings are underway today in london as the usa tries to get its hands on the most famous publisher and journalist in the world julian songe faces 175 years in jail in the q.c. for the usa james lewis is citing former cia spy jeffrey sterling to secure the australian wiki leaks found his removal division jeffrey stilling now joins me via skype from st louis in missouri jeffrey thanks so much for coming on the show so you know all about the tactics of the u.s. deep state racism persecution at the cia what do you make of your name being quoted in court.