Largest coronavirus lockdown has extended for a further 2 weeks but indias government is easing some restrictions. To u. S. Democratic president ial hopeful joe biden denies allegations of Sexual Assault by a former senate colleague. And in sports the English Premier League is stepping up plans for a return to action the league is mad to discuss what needs to be done for games to take a call in june. It is just off the 1500 hours g. M. T. The dramatic drop in oil prices over the past few weeks has been one of the main economic fallout of the Global Pandemic and agreement decided among the worlds Top Producers to cut output has now come into effect and it appears that the deal came to be only after President Donald Trump reportedly pressured saudi arabia threatening to withdraw u. S. Military support for riyadh now to syria sullivan java reports. Oil and water do not mix but politics in oil bond very well there is no official transcript of the conversation between the u. S. President and the Saudi Crown Prince which resulted in saudi arabias latest Oil Production cut reports suggest president all trump told muhammad bin sole man that u. S. Forces stationed in the kingdom could be withdrawn if saudi arabia did not stop flooding the market with cheap crude within days riyadh announced production cuts and ended its Oil Price War with russia. In g. 20 members including in norway have already announced cuts in output but questions still remain over compliance the us president has taken credit for the nearly 10000000 barrel cut by Oil Producers which comes into effect on friday i think i got them to cut. What they say can they say 10000000 but i think its 15000000 barrels i even heard. Saudi arabia and russias failure to agree on price stabilisation lead to a 31. 00 day price war which has resulted in a massive oversupply of crude that combined with a coronavirus shutdown of the worlds Major Economies provided a perfect storm. For the 1st time in history traders were paying to get rid of world stocks after storage ran out and u. S. Crude futures dipped to a record minus 40. 00 a barrel the International Energy agency estimates global Storage Capacity could be fall by mid june. With a powerful lobby and nearly a 1000000 u. S. Hydrocarbon sector jobs at stake its now an issue of National Security for the United States were also exploring potentially having the ability to store another several 100000000. 00 barrels so were looking at lots of different options were in touch with lots of people around the world and the president is determined that we protect the National Security interest and the job with flights grounded no one driving and factories closed analysts estimate the demand is in excess of 30000000. 00 barrels even though some restrictions are slowly being lifted the Energy Market is gloomy and positive projections International Oil price is estimated to average around 35. 00 a barrel while the us prices expected below 20. 00 a drop of 60 percent compared to last year major firms such as Royal Dutch Shell out of readjusting shell cut its dividend for the 1st time since world war 2. Western europes biggest oil and natural gas producer wants to ease tax rules for oil firms to prevent a drop in investment there is the short term benefit for Oil Consumers the European Central bank says inflation has declined due to the shop foreign oil prices but slowing growth globally job losses and declining industry coupled with falling Oil Production doesnt bode well for the Global Economy some of. Their. As youre hearing the lower demand for oil has resulted in oversupply even so dozens of saudi tankers a still heading west towards the u. S. Now some politicians there are trying to stop them according to the websites tanker truck has more than 50000000 barrels of Saudi Crude Oil is on its way to american ports marine traffic shows at least 26 tankers Southern Africa are apparently bound for terminals in the gulf of mexico for delivery to refineries and storage sites in texas and louisiana one is already completed its delivery to a saudi aramco owned refinery in texas but with oil prices sinking to record lows and threatening oil u. S. O. Produces some politicians in washington want the vessels turned back as the as theres nowhere for them to store the oil and he is director of Energy Policy advisors in energy and mining and research he says it will be a while before we see the impact of the production cuts. Normally in the oil market dates is quite far delayed when we look at the actual april data you saw production increases coming through so thus on the back of the original breakdown of the opec deal the size of the cut pretty staggering from a when you look at them in relation to april so i think there are going to be some countries the are going to quite reach their target certainly at the beginning of the month but there is there is a real issue into that as well in terms of Storage Capacity filling up around the world and whether. Countries and companies can actually produce and sell the oil i think the the data will start to be visible over the next couple of weeks theres area early indications there rusher is making the cuts you can see for on the shipping loading data i used an oil tank trucking Analytics Firm oil x. And theyre sharing the russian production in may has already started to fall. By thinking its going to take a few weeks to see the evidence of the large declines coming through in cerns of last leaving countries like russia. Other big exporting Oil ProducersAfricas Largest Oil Producer nigeria relies heavily on revenue from the industry a huge surplus and Global Supply is causing concern i would address reports from the capital of georgia its been a particularly difficult year for nigeria and all dependent economy is struggling low prices and cuts in production resulted in huge loss of revenue but more worrying for africas biggest producer is the damage the current clucked will do. With fuel Storage Facilities the options for nigeria like many small and medium sized produces is to give all or shut down some wells what were 52 days and on president a lot nobody has ever been taken to the beyond borders into storage within 2 weeks thats never happened what it means when countries come back to work. Is so much supply that the demand cannot compensate for that revenue shortfall some all have already forced the Nigerian Government to consider an almost 40 percent cut in this is spending estimate 1000000000. 00 identity for companies that youve had to shut down can i bring back the wealth if i can bring back do with what happens next for you a bit of pain of somebody that you could all but thats not a permanent that judging the current cost of producing a barrel of oil in nigeria is about the same as the market price something produces an expert say isnt sustainable for a long period nigerias oil company then m. P. C. Says its engaging its joint Venture Partners all companies to see how do a father cut production the countrys current output is 1400000. 00 barrels of oil a day and as producers desperately look to shop prices its awful possible that nigeria will be forced to make products experts warn that the current instability in the oil market is said to father damage the economy nigeria imports a significant amount of consumer goods including Refined Petroleum product i believe from the 46 and my kids. And thats much. Too. International. And thats whats much. More important and thats what. A lot of medium average nigerian. A bleak focused they could even get worse if the current market chart continues for a long time amid the trees. The u. S. President says that hes seen evidence that the corona virus originated in a lab or a tree in the chinese city of who han but fail to give any further detail donald trump said the release of covert 19 could have been a horrible mistake but as political hate explains the president didnt say from where he got the information. A Conspiracy Theory has been floating on the fringes of conservative media for weeks and now its made its way to the white house you seen anything at this point that gives you a high degree of confidence that they would have instituted a raji was the origin of this virus yes yes i have that was the president of the United States indicating hes seen something that says the corona virus was made in a chinese lab he didnt say if it was from a us agency or from Cable Television where he gets a lot of his information after reports that the cid ministration has been trying to get the Intelligence Community to find a connection to the lab the director of National Intelligence issued this statement saying the Intelligence Community also concurs with the wide Scientific Consensus that the covert 1000 virus was not manmade or genetically modified and 2 weeks ago the u. S. Military seemed to make the same conclusion on the on the lab piece of that thats theres a lot of. Rumor and speculation in a wide variety of media the blog sites etc should be no surprise to you that weve taken a keen interest in that and weve had a lot of intelligence take a hard look at that and i would just say at this point its inconclusive although the weight of evidence seems to indicate natural some republicans have been trying to point the blame and public anger at china some even saying they should simply refused to pay china back for the u. S. Bonds it holds the president though said he wouldnt go that far indicating more tariffs could be his response further straining the relationship between the 2. 00 countries and the already stretched Bank Accounts of consumers in the u. S. Who ultimately pay the price for those tariffs pedicle hain aljazeera. James warren is the executive editor of news god and former managing editor in charge of the Washington Bureau of the Chicago Tribune he says that while the live claim might be possible trump is using it for his own political purposes well i think of almost Washington Post to have the best story obscene so far on on everything that we know and dont know about the buyers and the bottom line is that the origins remain murky now as they were months ago. And it remains technically possible that it came from the lamp but the consensus is it probably didnt at the same time when clearly as fair minded scientists and experts in the field raise at least the possibility of a leak or in some way it having come out of that lap but politically at this point it certainly suits the president s self interest to suggest that this was all the fault of the chinese and to that extent one cannot underscore enough the role of one particular key white house aide a former journalist in china for the wall street journal matthew poppins there. Who ended up in the u. S. Military after a very good career in journalism who left china he believed distrustful of the regime and was the one who really convince many folks in the white house including the president that the virus was not only spreading beyond the borders of china a few months ago but that there was a clear clear Misinformation Campaign from the regime in beijing and the white house had to be very mindful of. This is the news hour still to come on the program as weve been hearing the world is awash with crude oil that it doesnt at the moment need now producers are running out of places to store it plus officer as Investigative Units is obtained evidence of a huge backlog of medical equipment in china will tell you more. About its course handshakes are out but the ball is back in court for some professional tennis players far will have to ask of the rest of the sport a little later. South korea and india have decided to stop using chinese made rapid covert 19 test kits after they were found to be faulty scientists in south korea say that when retested hundreds of recovered patients returned positive results the 2nd time they blame what they say are shortcomings of the test itself rather than reinfection india bought half a 1000000 kids from china it also discovered in accuracies china has defended its products thought to Patrick Titus division chief of Pathology Sciences at Central Medicine he says the scientists are still trying to develop better testing methods because the virus is so new. We have to distinguish all the different types of tests out there and how they perform any one of the problems right now is were mixing all of these different tests that and and grouping them all together and then you know casting blame on all tests when that isnt true there are tests that look for antibodies in the blood and there are tests that look for the virus of the genetic material of the fires so those are 2 very different types of tests and they give very different sat answers because this has been a new virus and we dont understand everything about it weve been very cautious about interpreting these results and you know one of the possibilities was that people were becoming reinfected or that they were really lapsing. After not fully recovering from the infection and finally there was that possibility that is the false positive oratory cast all of those things were looked at and i think now theyve concluded that the viruses that they detected in the east that a few 100 people in south korea were not viable so these viruses are not. Theyre dead birol particles theyre picked up by the task and these people will not be able to transmit the infection to other people it is extending whats been the worlds biggest by 2 for the weeks but restrictions in some areas will be eased beginning monday lets go straight to new delhi is elizabeth for autumn and tell us more so what are you guidelines this. Hi adrian so in the last nearly 6 weeks of the lockdown in india the government has divided the country into green orange and red zones depending on the number of cases and the stage of transmission and its announced that while the National Lockdown will continue for another 2 weeks that they will be a considerable easing of restrictions mostly in green and orange zones so what are they well as of may the 4th all goods are allowed to be transported they will be buses in green zones but with 50 percent seizing capacity taxis are allowed in green and orange zones but with only one passenger things like all construction and industrial activity is allowed even in red zones in rural areas now over the last 10 days we have seen easing of restrictions in a number of sectors most notably agriculture indias biggest employer and all the businesses which supported and all stand alone shops even those selling non essential items have been open for about the last week so what are the restrictions that remain in place while there is still no air on rail travel hospitality Restaurants Hotels remain shot into state movements no movement between states and things like cinema halls you know malls Sports Complex is the main shot and they will be no political social or cultural gatherings but the government has announced plans to transport millions of Migrant Workers from thatll come is good news to a lot of people. A lot of people that is because there are millions of people in india who are Migrant Workers who work in different states to where theyre from and a few days ago the government announced that it will allow them to be transported back home and buses announced today that it will actually use trains to do so because there are so many of them the 1st such train travel between the states and jock and on friday morning and were expecting many more everyone will be tested before getting on trains that only carry the right numbers to ensure social distancing and they will be disinfected often the plight of Migrant Workers in india has been one of the biggest failures the tragedies of the lockdown we saw hundreds of thousands of them over half a 1000000 walking hundreds of kilometers to get back to where they were from when all public transport was cancelled tens of them died making the journey weve seen protests around the country so this will come as a relief but it will be a mammoth task for the government again given the numbers of them in the country. Elizabeth who are on im reporting live from new delhi liz many thanks indeed. South africa has begun to ease certain restrictions after 5 weeks of lockdown to tackle the pandemic some businesses are being allowed to reopen from friday and people can leave their homes to exercise the government says that it will impose an overnight curfew and deploy more soldiers to ensure that social distancing rules are followed aljazeera from a to miller is in johannesburg with more on how the 1st day