The Inside Story Podcast

Demand for oil has collapsed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Planes are grounded, factories are shut, and cars are off the roads in many cities under lockdowns.

Oil prices fell below $30 a barrel, and dropped further when major producers Saudi Arabia and Russia couldn't agree on cutting output.

Now they've set aside their dispute.

OPEC and the oil cartel's allies agreed to a 10 percent production cut, the biggest ever.

But the deal to switch off the taps by 10 million barrels a day still needs approval from Mexico.

Some analysts warn production cuts will hurt smaller nations that depend on oil revenues.

How should these challenges be managed?

Presenter: Bernard Smith

Guests:

Alex Schindelar - President, Energy Intelligence, an oil & gas research company

Antoine Halff - Senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University

NJ Ayuk - Chairman, African Energy Chamber

- Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe

- Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish

- Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera

- Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

#AlJazeeraEnglish #InsideStory #OilCut

Yemen is one of the few places left on earth without a coronavirus case.

But health workers worry it's only a matter of time before they record the first infections.

An outbreak would add more misery to a country suffering from five years of war.

Fighting has destroyed hospitals, killed more than 100,000 people, and pushed millions towards famine.

The Saudi-UAE coalition has now begun a ceasefire after an appeal from the United Nations.

How will the Iranian-backed Houthis respond?

Presenter: Bernard Smith

Guests:

Sultana Begum - Advocacy Manager for the Norwegian Refugee Council

Hussain Al Bukhaiti - Houthi and Yemeni Affairs Commentator

Elisabeth Kendall - Senior Research Fellow at Pembroke College, University of Oxford

- Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe

- Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish

- Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera

- Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

#AlJazeeraEnglish #Yemen #InsideStory

Much of the world is now imposing strict lockdowns to stop the spread of coronavirus.

But the Chinese city where the pandemic began is easing restrictions, after a sharp fall in new cases.

11 million people in Wuhan are now allowed to leave the city for the first time since late January.

Health officials are keeping a close watch to avoid a second wave of infections.

China's government is hailing this as a milestone in the global fight against COVID-19.

But questions have been raised about whether Beijing has been under-reporting its number of infections and deaths.

So, what are the lessons for the rest of the world?

Presenter: Bernard Smith

Guests:

Dr. Arisina Ma - President of the Hong Kong Public Doctors' Association.

Dr. Muhammad Munir - Lecturer in Virology at Lancaster University, UK.

Dr. Gloria Taliani - Infectious Disease Specialist and Member of the COVID19 Task Force of the Italian Civil Protection System.

- Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe

- Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish

- Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera

- Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

#AlJazeeraEnglish #Coronavirus #China

We are no longer physically shopping or eating in restaurants. And a flight to one of the world's favourite destinations, is now only a dream.

The measures we're taking to save our lives during the coronavirus pandemic are disrupting businesses globally.

But staying at home with our only windows to the outside world - being a wifi connection and a device - is changing our consumption habits and benefitting major tech companies.

We are buying groceries, medicines and pet foods online. We are working and learning online.

We are replacing travelling by surfing online. You get where we're going with this.

And tech companies are thriving, with Amazon alone hiring 100,000 new staff.

Zoom video calling is now believed to be worth $44 billion.

So, what's driving this boom in this time of crisis?

Presenter: Peter Dobbie

Guests

John Biggs, Editor at Coindesk, a digital currency and financial technology website.

Mark Coeckelbergh, Professor at the University of Vienna and Member European Commission's Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence.

Nolen Gertz, technology ethicist and Professor at the University of Twente.

- Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe

- Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish

- Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera

- Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

#AlJazeeraEnglish #Coronavirus

It's taken coronavirus longer to reach Africa than other parts of the world. But experts are warning of a possible large-scale outbreak on the world's poorest continent of 1.2 billion people.

And if Europe or the U.S. were struggling to contain the pandemic, the potential consequences across the continent are possibly devastating, if not catastrophic.

One example: Mali has 56 ventilators for a population of 17 million.

Africa is still reporting low numbers of cases compared to Europe and China, but that could change fast.

Coronavirus has reached almost every nation on the continent. And as we see here, the infection rate and the number of deaths are increasing.

For most African countries the question is not how and when do we test - at the moment they simply can't - the question now is when do people start dying?

Presenter: Peter Dobbie

Guests:

Abdulsalami Nisidi, Provost of the College of Health Sciences at the University of Africa in Bayelsa State Nigeria.

David Heymann, Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

David Owiro, Founder and Principal Consultant at the Africa Development Think Tank.

- Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe

- Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish

- Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera

- Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

#AlJazeeraEnglish #Africa #Coronavirus #InsideStory

We're all acclimatising to a new world of coronavirus pandemic.

People staying at home, businesses shut and economies heading towards a cliff edge and we're all wondering when will we return to something approaching the "old normal".

For some people, immunity to Covid-19 could be a future gate pass, a passport back to work, to riding public transport, flying on a plane, going out, shaking hands - remember those days ?

Experts are studying antibody tests to see whether people who've already had coronavirus, are no longer at risk of contracting it again. If so, they could have certificates that grant them freedom when the rest of us stay locked down.

But would that work?

Presenter: Peter Dobbie

Guests

Dominic Wilkinson, Director of Medical Ethics at the University of Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics.

Gerard Krause, epidemiologist at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research.

Derek Gatherer, virologist at the University of Lancaster.

- Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe

- Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish

- Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera

- Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

#AlJazeeraEnglish #Coronavirus #InsideStory

The number of people infected by covid-19 is more than one million globally. The number who have died is almost 60,000.

The United States currently has the highest number of infections. Italy, the largest number of deaths.

Yet some countries appear to be succeeding at 'flattening the curve'.

The number of new cases each day appears to be falling in nations such as Taiwan, Canada, South Korea and Iceland.

They have all shown that the rate of infections can be slowed down.

The United States, which has been criticised for a slow and ineffective response, seems to have now become the main center of the pandemic.

But US President Donald Trump says he has just the man to help tackle the crisis.

His senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner is leading the Coronavirus Task Force.

So how have some countries managed to control the rate of infections and deaths?

And can others - Italy and Spain - bring theirs down?

Presenter: Peter Dobbie

Guests

Gloria Taliani, infectious disease doctor and member of the COVID19 Task Force of the Italian Civil Protection System.

Drew Thompson, Senior Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore and a former U.S. Department of Defense Official.

Annie Sparrow, Emergency and Critical Care Physician.

- Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe

- Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish

- Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera

- Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Over the past month, two of the world's biggest oil producers have been in dispute about how to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.

Demand collapsed after airlines grounded their planes, factories shut their doors, and countries imposed travel bans.

Crude prices fell further when Saudi Arabia and Russia couldn't agree on cutting supplies to try and force prices higher.

The US president now suggests both sides may agree to cut production by 10 to 15 million barrels a day.

Saudi Arabia has called for an emergency meeting of oil producing nations.

Will Donald Trump's intervention be enough to end the feud?

And what's the impact of the rift?

Presenter: Bernard Smith

Guests:

Mikhail Krutikhin - Partner at the consulting agency RusEnergy

Alex Shindelar - President of Energy Intelligence, an industry analysis company

Jeff Colgan - Professor of Political Science at Brown University and author of the book,: 'Petro-Aggression: When Oil Causes War.'

- Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe

- Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish

- Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera

- Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

#AlJazeeraEnglish #InsideStory #OilPrice

The war against the coronavirus pandemic is being fought in hospitals around the world.

Doctors and nurses on the frontline face long hours and huge workloads.

Hospitals are not only running out of ventilators for patients; they can't supply staff with protective gear such as masks and surgical gowns.

Thousands of health workers are falling ill themselves, and some have been attacked for doing their jobs.

Medical staff have been sharing videos and photos online to show the mental and physical strain.

How should they be protected?

Presenter: Mohammed Jamjoom

Guests:

Dr Jehan El-Bayoumi - Founding Director of the Rodham Institute, George Washington School of Medicine & Health Sciences

Marco Giacchetti - President, Policlinico Hospital in Milan, Italy

Paul Yip - Chair Professor at the department of Social Work and Social Administration, University of Hong Kong

- Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe

- Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish

- Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera

- Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

#AlJazeeraEnglish #Coronavirus #InsideStory

It's been a week since India began the world's biggest lockdown to stop the spread of coronavirus.

The country has around 1,600 infections so far, but scientists fear the number could be much higher because of low testing rates.

Health workers in New Delhi are trying to track down at least 2,000 people who stayed at the headquarters of a muslim group, after seven people died of Covid-19.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's shutdown order caught many by surprise.

Millions of migrant workers are struggling to return to their home villages.

And self-isolation isn't an option for millions who live in cramped spaces with poor sanitation.

So what can be done to lessen the impact?

Presenter: Mohammed Jamjoom

Guests:

Barkha Dutt - Television Journalist and Newspaper Columnist.

Chandra Bhushan - Chief Executive of the International Forum for Environment, Sustainability and Technology.

Meenakshi Ganguly - South Asia Director at Human Rights Watch.

- Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe

- Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish

- Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera

- Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

#AlJazeeraEnglish #InsideStory #India #Coronavirus