well John that's right you have to go
back to the 1930s to witness an economic
slump as sharp as this one it is
staggering these numbers about five and
a half million people filed for
unemployment benefits last week that was
slightly down if there is any good news
to be had here from the week before but
it still brought that total as you just
mentioned there to 22 million people now
it took several years for the numbers to
reach not even that peak in the Great
Recession
what's staggering about this is it's all
happened in the last four weeks time
obviously that's a total nightmare for
Donald Trump who is desperate as we know
to get the economy opened up
interestingly the way they're doing it
here is rather than in the UK where
they're subsidizing or helping to
subsidize wages here they're trying to
boost unemployment benefits so that is
really making things much more difficult
because people are losing their jobs
they're having to seek unemployment
benefits and then potentially to get
another job as and when this crisis
finishes they are also giving money to
small businesses there was a fun but
ironically today that fund has now run
out this being in America politics is of
course getting in the way and the
Republicans and the Democrats are
fighting about a way to extend that so
this crisis this level of unemployment
I'm afraid every economist agrees is
only going to get worse siobhan Kennedy
now after denial comes the crackdown as
cases of coronavirus begin surging in
Russia with almost 28,000 infections and
232 deaths President Putin has announced
that the annual celebration of the
victory over Nazi Germany on May the 9th
will be postponed
other measures include digital permits
in Moscow in order to be allowed to
leave home and as our international
editor Lindsey Hilsum now reports it's
meant rough tactics and arrests by
police against government critics
including one doctor who was detained as
she tried to hand out PPE to hospital
workers who simply didn't have any it
was a bright cold day in April but the
clocks have not struck 13 in Moscow
Russia's attempts at controlling
coronavirus through Orwellian bigbrother
surveillance have been beset by problems
huge traffic jams blocked the streets as
police manually check the digital travel
passes but since yesterday Muscovites
have been obliged to download it can
take a while it was the birth of Super
Lawyer
[Music]
outside the metro they checked the code
that shows where you're going and why
which causes delays and then inside some
stations a distinct lack of social
distancing rapid population growth of
the city the Moscow authorities are
using facial recognition in street
cameras to pick out people who should be
in quarantine
according to the website of the company
which developed the technology
200 violators have been issued with
warnings a lot of good things more other
techniques are also in use earlier this
month doctor anastasiya vasudhaiva tried
to deliver PPE to hospitals in western
Russia and was promptly arrested she's a
known opposition supporter and head of a
doctors union her detention focus mine's
on the problems Russian medical staff
face protection equipment and
the issue is more fraught because the
Russian government has made a big show
of sending medics abroad like these
military doctors working in Bergamo in
Italy they even sent aid to New York
eventually late last month President
Putin put on a hazmat suit so signal he
took the threat at home seriously today
he met his security council the
postponement of celebrations to mark the
75th anniversary of the victory over
Nazi Germany shows just how worried he
is confident economists are news is back
in March
a Russian chat show host interviewed the
virus which one you got the religious
Dada storm casting if maybe he had
arrived in Moscow earlier than the
government said and his presence had
been covered up he fudged a response
maybe afraid of being imprisoned for
five years under a new law against
spreading false news about himself