to start choose a originated in the middle east iran is still the biggest producer worldwide along with the u.s. but on to contributes less than one percent of the global to start your harvest the volcanic soil here is rich in minerals that give the starches they special taste. and they can only be harvested once every 2 years. now do you look at grocers the stock has on fields that were once abandoned. what is special here are the differences in temperature it's very hot during the day and cold at night and we have a lot of snow in winter. the frost kills pests so we don't need to use pesticides. back in toronto during the festival the pep it also restaurant serves a special menu it begins with brisket. then there's pits with the structure is similar enough finishing with the step should duck to full for desserts. but it's the past to stand outside that draws the crowds the fresh pasta made from durham wheat and dutch of flour it is produced around the clock. yes aimed at b.j. each time there are more and more people always breaking the previous record time we harvested this year in th

accuse the us of trying to use the current situation to force iran into negotiations in the middle east iran is the worst hit by the virus and is an urgent need of medical equipment the country has about 60000 confirmed cases with 37000 reported deaths. but over in the philippines where a man was shot dead at a coronavirus checkpoint the man who was reportedly intoxicated at the time was confronted by a village official or not wearing a face mask so when response the man threatened a law enforcement using a skate he was then shot dead by a police officer so this is the 1st incident of police shooting a civilian after president roderick go to target a war and troublemakers and those defying orders that they would be shot dead. all right switching gears over to the world of sports with regina hammett's were there would you know there's a new crop of inductees for the 2020 class of basketball's hall of fame i think one of them was way overdue very much overdue and it is a small moment of happiness in the sports world as a nice this memorial basketball hall of fame announced there not i news mem

more than 600 people on board that ship later tested positive and 10 have died so far in the middle east iran is the worst country hit with the pandemic while it's still struggling to contain the virus on monday foreign ministry spokesman told journalists that iran will not seek assistance from the u.s. to battle the coded $1000.00 pandemic. look we have no media and will not make any request to the united states of america to send medical and health assistance to the islamic republic of iran it is not our policy to request help from the statesmen of the american regime what they are seeking and have revealed as well is to keep iran in this difficult situation and predicament so they can take advantage of it until the iranian nation is worn out and desperate and goes to the negotiating table the country's health ministry said $136.00 have been reported in just 24 hours bringing the total death toll to $3739.00 with more than 60500 confirmed cases meanwhile in europe britain's prime minister boris johnson remains hospitalized for observation after complications from the coronavirus he is now i

of trying to use the current situation to force iran into negotiations over the middle east iran is the worst hit by the virus and is an urgent need of medical equipment the country has about 60000 confirmed cases so far and about 37000 reported deaths. and another cruise ship has docked in florida with people sick with a coronavirus this one at the port of miami while some have disembarked others are still being held up on the ship are to correspondent john how do you has more from miami. sick passengers were wheeled from the clearly princess and into waiting imbalances not the port of miami the coral princess princess cruises ship arrived saturday after being turned away from port everglades in nearby fort lauderdale and several other ports since march the ship was carrying 1898 people including 1020 passengers 878 crew members 2 people died on board the ship the 3rd sunday at a miami hospital 13 other people have reportedly tested positive for the corona virus including at least 6 crew members the daughter of one of those critically ill passengers 71 year old wilson mom desperately t

accuse the us of trying to use the current situation to force iran into negotiations now in the middle east iran is the worst hit by the virus and is an urgent need of medical equipment the country currently has about 60000 confirmed cases about 3000 reported deaths. and over to the philippines where a man was shot dead at a colorado virus checkpoint that man who was reportedly intoxicated at the time was confronted by a village official for not wearing a mask a man then threatened law enforcement using a site police shot him dead at the scene this is the 1st incident of police shooting a civilian after president rodriguez day warned that troublemakers and those defying orders be shot dead. and white house officials are describing this week's covert 19 as a pearl harbor moment but not really a fair comparison we're going to discuss and then later at the sports h.q. we're going to hammering the some memories from the world of major league soccer as we wait for the season to resume hopefully we'll hear about. as we head into the big climb singularity it's the same almost important thing that ever

middle east iran's death toll is the highest. official figure is almost 3,000. but opposition group mek says the real total is around 15,000 and now they say there are riots and anti-government protests growing around the country and say a number of top commanders, mullahs and politicians have caught the virus. doesn't bode well for the regime. good news doctors in spain where the death toll is over 10,000 applauded after 93-year-old man recovered from covid-19 following five days in isolation. in europe more than 95% of people who died are over the age of 60. >> sandra: thank you. >> ed: the white house predicting if americans follow the guidelines the u.s. could turn the corner on all this. seema verma from the task force is coming up. i just could not hear. i was hesitant to get the hearing aids because of my short hair, but nobody even sees them. (avo) our nearly invisible hearing aids are just one reason we've been the brand leader for over 70 years. (deborah) when i finally could hear for the first time, i started crying. i could hear everything. (avo) cal

turkey now has a large number of recorded coronavirus cases in the middle east overtaking its neighbor iran. and warlord who leave after is under pressure in libya as forces loyal to the tripoli governments make advances. so the pressure is mounting on u.s. governors to ease looked on rules with protests encouraged by president trump held in multiple states for the 3rd day in a row hundreds of conservative americans ignored advice on social distancing to join rallies demanding an end to the lockdown donald trump says some states will begin easing restrictions in the coming days. texas and vermont will allow certain businesses to open on monday while still requiring appropriate social distancing precautions and i can tell you the governor of texas greg abbott a knows what he's doing he's a great governor knows exactly what he's doing. montana will begin lifting restrictions on friday ohio north dakota a night of have advised nonessential businesses to prepare for a phased opening starting may 1st throughout this crisis my administration has taken unprecedented actions to reduce economic reli

on the other hand iran is pretty isolated in the middle east. the only government that is friendly with iran is syria and that is just a shadow of a government. iran has a few friends here and there like hezbollah but it is isolated. containment has had some successes and there have been minor -- not necessarily always minor but small, specific transactional agreements reached in the various containment initiatives, post importantly the jcpoa of 2015. i think containment is about the only thing we can hope for for the foreseeable future. i don't think conditions are ripe for agreement or coercion. radicals remain pretty strong especially supreme leader khamenei. he is deeply anti-american. he always has been. he always will be. the one ray of light, the one piece of good news i guess i can mention khamenei now is 80 years old. he's ailing. he has prostate cancer. he's lasted a long time. he's been in office about 30 years now. one of these days he'll exit the scene. that might possibly, conceivably bring about change in iran as the death of stali

. >> sam, some countries in the middle east like iran have started lifting the coronavirus curfews they've place. how is iran dealing with this virus? >> well, iran is battling the threat of the virus domestically, but they're also ramping up threats to us at the same time. just last week, they launched a military satellite into space. their military satellite is viewed as a front for their ballistic missile program. and it was technologically more advanced. it was launched from a mobile launcher rather than a fixed site. they're also continuing to launch sophisticated information warfare attacks against us. their nuclear program is marching ahead, each and every day as they blow through the restrictions in the nuclear deal. and other than angry tweets from the president, it does not appear that we have much of a strategy for what continues to be a multi-theater, multi-pronged threat from the iranian regime. >> sam vinograd, thank you very, very much. >>> they say a picture is worth a thousand words, but in the midst of this pandemic crisis, family photos are absolutely priceless. up next,

iran and saudi arabia. after that bill corrie a retired career foreign service officer who served in the middle east for 25 s talks about u.s. policy in the region and the recent confrontation between the u.s. and iran. : : the book and panel is certainly timely given the rising crisis with iran. we will get to that subject eventually but the book entitled seven pillars in the discussion is to look more broadly and more deeply at the drivers of instability in the middle east. from yemen to syria to iraq and now with iran, the region more than ever seems in a permanent state of turmoil and has become a land of endless wars. and tragically, despite decades of intense and often well-meaning american intention in the expenditure of billions of dollars, u.s. policy has more often than not in a failure. maybe to caveat more often than not is too kind, and absolute failure that one except the basic lane was the stability and a better life for the people in the region. of course once ultimately responsible for our country success for failure are the people who lived there but the catastrophe of today's middle east

coming up turkey now has the largest number of recorded coronavirus cases in the middle east overtaking its neighbor iran. bodies piled up on the streets and inside shipping containers how the virus is overwhelmed ecuador's largest city. won't have me for have to resign the pressure in libya its forces moral to the tripoli government make advance. so the pressure is mounting on us governance chewies rules over coronavirus with protests encouraged by president trump held in multiple states for the 3rd day in a row hundreds of conservative americans ignored advice on social distancing to join rallies demanding an end to the lockdown donald trump says that some states will begin easing restrictions in the coming days. texas and vermont will allow certain businesses to open on monday while still requiring appropriate social distancing precautions and i can tell you the governor of texas greg abbott he knows what he's doing he's a great governor knows exactly what he's doing. montana will begin lifting restrictions on friday ohio north dakota night who have advised non-essential businesses to prepare for a ph

in the coming days it now has the highest number of reported cases of the virus in the middle east overtaking iran well it also has more infections in china where the virus 1st appeared more than 2000 people have died so far in turkey with 127 new deaths recorded more than 86000 infections have been confirmed with nearly 4000 of those diagnosed in the past 24 hours a lockdown has been extended for 15 days prohibiting travel between 30 of turkey's largest city. limits elect is the managing editor of the daily suffer a pro-government english language newspaper in turkey he says residents are complying with lockdown measures majority of the people regardless of what car what party they come from even if they do have some sort of criticism they support the way that the way the government has handled this issue in fact the trust for it for the for the health minister for example has been like skyrocketing like no other ministers before how he has handle the information sharing the transparency with regards to that has been largely supported by the public and in fact the reason why . you know of course

genuinely believing that he wanted a much more broad relationship with iran, that he wanted to rewrite the map of u.s. alliances in the middle east. i don't think he initially was that interested in the nuclear issue, but because that was the hot issue of the day, he saw it as a way in to a broader conversation with iran, but immediately saw, and we all saw in the first obama term how quickly that became, that fell, by focusing only on the nuclear issue, that allowed those who are opposed to the idea of closer u.s./iran relations, particular in those days israel, to basically make a lot of noise around the nuclear issue and to sort of, i guess, encourage ways for the u.s. to get more and more bogged down in some of the nuclear, specifics of the nuclear negotiations. so, we saw how that went. eventually obama got his nuclear deal, but in a way, opponents of the u.s. relation ran out the clock on him. he got it about a year to the end of his second term and there wasn't much energy or time left for serious u.s./iran. >> i agree entirely with what john just said. also on the iranian side there was no appetite for following up on the

turkey now has a large number of recorded coronavirus cases in the middle east overtaking its neighbor iran.

policy in the middle east in the recent confrontation between the u.s. and iran in his book "bunker diplomacy". later he explores dwight eisenhower's decision to deploy u.s. marines to beirut in 1958 becoming america's first compact entry into the middle east. >> many thanks to all of you for making time in your day to join us. our gathering includes fasteners and representatives from across embassies including ambassador from tunisia, we have representatives from ukraine, iraq, jordan, morocco, tunisia, turkey, yemen, the netherlands, norway, australia, zimbabwe, and ecuador. from the four corners, we come to hear you. we also welcome distinguish board members and selfless funder of the middle east programs at the atlantic council john de blasio. finally we welcome u.s. government officials, private companies and nonprofits, i predict r

you are in jerusalem but i wonder about the wider middle east. irantern country that has been worst affected by coronavirus and the death toll officially announced is over 3a00 people. and there are concerns at the moment that there could be a resurgence in the number of patients and that is because they just had their new year holidays that finished yesterday and despite appeals from the military and clerics for people to stay home, what we saw in the streets were really huge trafficjams, shops reopening, crowds as well and so we had health officials saying that this could be a big setback for the effo rts this could be a big setback for the efforts of iran to contain the spread of the coronavirus and it could have set the country back several months. thank you very much and it is good to see you this morning. convenience stores have seen a massive increase in demand as more people opt to shop locally for essentials instead of heading to large supermarkets or waiting weeks for an online orders. katy austin has been speaking to those running these vit

well iran is the worst affected country in the middle east the crisis there is spilling over into neighboring states and afghanistan in particular is already ravaged by decades of war and terrorism every day afghans are returning home from iran potentially carrying the coronavirus and there's only a rudimentary health care system to treat them. hundreds of afghan migrants arrive at the islam qala border crossing every day to return to their homeland from iran. they are met by health workers who ask anyone who feels sick to identify themselves promising they will receive free medical care. that's affordable so that they get the iranian government puts 40 to 45 people in a bus when it sends them back that's in violation of the guidance from the world health organization we are very concerned. that. afghanistan's western border has become a gateway for the coronavirus more than $150000.00 afghans return from around in march alone after losing their jobs or out of fear of getting infected the country is badly prepared for a major outbreak volunteers are disinfecting streets and businesses in the

numbers nearing a 1000000 and iran leading the way out of the middle east still the persian gulf remains a tinderbox just one move away from a flare up so joining us to discuss former u.k. m.p. george galloway george we know that trump is the. 1st politician to use twitter for diplomatic relations or i guess in this case and diplomatic but now even his former national security advisor john bolton is doing the same thing he's weighing in on iran yesterday tweeting this he said quote iran's launch of a military satellite is proof we are still not applying enough pressure deterrence has not been restored and coronavirus is not slowing down the ayatollah has iran's goal remains i.c.b.m.'s capable of carrying nuclear weapons they cannot be trusted now george people thought once bolton was removed from his post that things went with iran would simmer down apparently not now what. no definitely although it could all be just a ploy to drive the oil price up and if it is it's working and president was very clear that he would do anything to rescue the u.s. oil and gas business so driving up the p

not tookie has replaced iran as a country with the highest recorded number of coded 1000 cases in the middle east more than 82000 infections have been confirmed close to 3800 of those cases were diagnosed in the past 24 hours another round of weekend curfews has been imposed covering most of turkey meanwhile authorities in iran have allowed some businesses to reopen with the government saying it's time to shift the focus back to the economy as in basra he reports some terra. after nearly 2 months of being closed because of the corona virus businesses in the iranian capital are waking up from their hibernation for main street shops like this in open areas the city's prime real estate it is business as usual but for covered markets where there are bottlenecks where dense crowds can gather the government says it's still too dangerous to open up any of the shops in those spaces but the traders we've spoken to in teheran is back alley bazaars they've told us that not only have they not made any money for months but it will take many more months to get back on their feet they say they too need to pay t

turkey has overtaken iran as the country in the middle east with the highest recorded number of 1000 cases now pushing it up to the 8th highest death toll in the wild just off to china corona virus in turkey has now killed nearly 2000 people with more than 82000 infections confirmed nearly 3800 of those cases were diagnosed just in the past 24 hours and the lockdown has now been extended for another 15 days prohibiting travel between of tekkies largest cities well let's now speak to mr keyes the managing editor of the daily sub an english language newspaper in turkey and he joins us now from istanbul let's start with this lockdown and many would argue that it's too little too late in these figures suggest that that's true what's the feeling in istanbul. well in istanbul actually over the weekend we have a total lockdown and there is a 24 hour curfew for both saturday and sunday so and the streets are very quiet and life has almost come to a stop in istanbul and 31 other cities metropolitan that is the bigger provinces in turkey however you know we know that there are certain services

turkey has replaced iran as the country with the highest recorded number of covert 1000 cases in the middle east more than 82000 infections have been confirmed a curfew has been extended by 2 days to contain the spread it's israel will begin lifting its lockdown from sunday more than a month after it started some businesses will be allowed to reopen and controls on movement will be relaxed pakistan's government has lifted restrictions on prayers and mosques jury in the muslim holy month of ramadan the remainder was made during a meeting of religious scholars and government officials worshippers will have to wear face masks and keep a safe distance from each other to prevent further spread of the virus. hospitals in brazil under increasing strain refrigeration unit was sent to a hospital and now sort of this video emerged said to show bodies being kept in bags next to patients now says one of several major cities running out of intensive care beds including sao paolo rio de janeiro. guatemala has suspended all flights carrying migrants being deported from the united states after more than 40 retu

calm across much of the middle east has seen quite a rush of heavy thunderstorms of course over all few days there is some cloud on its way east was heading across towards iran so we could you see want to light showers on sunday but really apart from that it is mostly clear and find how much is a feeling pretty good as well 28 celsius in doha but very warm across divide with a high of 36 there is still the charles one or 2 showers across into yemen on sunday of course we've had that flooding there this past week and then as we go through monday unfortunately more rain does develop across well central and western as a soggy again some heavier rains pushing across into western yemen so santa again could be impacted and elsewhere there to the north it is fine as well so will be baghdad with a high of 33 the rain's a fairly extensive across central africa particularly on the gulf of guinea and if i quite heavy still along this coast of the towns near pushing up into kenya up towards somalia and also into ethiopia some heavy rains as well sunday across eastern sections of madagascar they will stay in the 4 calls as we go through monday as well the rains further t

the coronavirus worldwide continues another fight also continues to brew in the middle east between the united states and iran with iraq remaining the most likely battlefield last week 5 rockets were fired at an american oil company working near basra u.s. workers had already left the area here. clear who was behind the attack but on april 1st president trump warned that his administration received intelligence that iran or one of its proxies was planning a strike on u.s. forces in iraq tweeting that if u.s. troops are attacked quote iran will pay a very heavy price indeed now the u.s. has offered $10000000.00 for information on hezbollah commander sheikh mohammed qahtani who was a close associate friend and battlefield colleague of iranian general qassim salaam ani the u.s. designated cothren e a global terrorist in 2013 the state department says it's offering money for info on his activities his network his associates are part of an effort to disrupt the quote financial mechanisms of hezbollah and while the coronavirus pandemic may have tempered any immediate attacks on u.s. forces the u.s. isn't taking any

. >>> there may be a positive trend for the middle east's hardest hit country, iran, with the w.h.o. saying that they are observing a flattening off of the number of coronavirus cases being reported there. and president rouhani has told the population that some of them may be able to return to what's described as low-risk economic activity, pledging $1 billion to further stave off the spread of covid-19. now, the region's other nation that is in the global top ten is turkey, and the government here is trying to reassure the population that they have the situation under control. the minister of health is saying that icus are at about 62% capacity and that under 50% of hospital beds are currently occupied. plus, the government is planning on turning two decommissioned airports in the east area, the hardest hit city, into hospitals. but there is quite a bit of criticism here that the government has not implemented a full lockdown. yes, businesses are closed. some of them, public spaces, are off limits, but you're only under a government-mandated lockdown if you are under the age of 20 o

middle east you are right in terms of the sheer scale of the war. if we want to put it was happen in syria, however, that may have surpassed the iran-iraq were consortand the great lakes region in africa. the reason why sectarianism seems to be so contentious right now in the middle east is only ten or 15% of the muslim world may be shiite but if you draw circle around the levant in the arabian peninsula and a rant it's about a 50-50 parity which is why ever since around the beginning of the century, there's been a sense that absolute everything is in play. but in conclusion what i would argue is that people who are hell-bent on having a conflict will always come up for an excuse to have one. that can be political, that can be religious, it can be some other aspect. what i wanted to avoid with this and the reason we are doing a rethink is we were not try to come up with a political sign spirit of where one size it's all. -- fits all. .. i think the centerpiece of the struggle, i don't know whether those things will be resolved. in some ways they arequite large and big but the centerpiece is from the bottom . and that struggle that is happening and i

middle east you're right in terms of this sheer skill of the war. if we want to put in what happened in syria, however, that may surpass the iran-iraq war, certainly thegreat lakes region. region. the reason why sectarianism seems to be so contentious right net in the middle east is only ten or 15% of the muslim world may be shiite. .. people are going to look at what's most proximate which is otherwise, who is ruining them and whether those are willing to do justly with a sense of effectiveness. that's what i think we will be a big part of the debate this decade. >> other questions? >> spent a lot of time in the middle east the last 20 so years. i guess i'm wondering, i believe everything -- english and french when hundred years ago when they carved up the ottoman empire and you just mentioned nationalism. seems like that's an unheard-of thing until recently. do you see, do you actually see the nationstate either recombining, i hate to say biden is right on something but iraq really is three places. do you see, nobody wants to give up their boundaries, their current international boundaries which to me is one of the issues that the different eccentri

you know it's amazing to me that you see whether it's venezuela or even iran over the middle east but right now at a time of imminent danger to citizens at home the word we're worried about. whether or not he's a drug trafficker about that there seems ridiculous to me we always have a habit of finding someone else to attack and someone and another. to demonize you probably already know how i feel about the war on drugs in general the global war on drugs is even more problematic and there may be some issues with the winder which seem i think that people could admit to that but the united states basically going out on an all out drug war in the midst of it a global pandemic is it's not the right time it's not the place and i think that my comments towards towards donald trump and what we're seeing happen there are extremely poignant at this moment. really and what's what blows my mind is you really want to stop the drug war if you want to you want to crack down on drugs i have an idea and the prohibition of narcotics and the prohibition of that because guess what that's the only reason

now iran is the middle east force affected country and its fight against the virus has been badly hampered by u.s. sanctions and wants to have talks within the country turn to getting back to work the same us probably has more the last 24 hours we've seen 158 new reported deaths from the corona virus this is the largest it's been in recent days we've also seen 22560 new cases so that is lower in terms of overall infection rate that we've been we've seen in the recent days but the numbers are staying steady and this is happening at a time when the nauru's holiday period has ended and what we're seeing on the streets of tehran is that people are beginning to come out of their homes they are beginning to return to work there is more traffic on the roads people are opening shops and businesses despite the fact the government state or stay at home order or stay at home suggestion to its people remains in place the health ministry has said that this is a worrying sign that they understand that people need to go back to work that they need to continue to carry on with their lives to be able to ma