back investigating the united states and its role in the world. and in the u.s. election primaries presumptive democratic nominee joe biden strives to reach the official delegate threshold. on al-jazeera. the coronavirus ranks in record time that's the aim as global leaders meet to raise billions for urgent research. a lot more clout this is out there a live from doha also coming up president trump predicts a vaccine within months and he blames the chinese mistake for the pandemic. it's really starts to reopen after nearly $29000.00 coronavirus deaths but also some countries lifting restrictions all too fast. israel's political future in the

balance the top court hears a final arguments to a new power sharing deal. so the search for a coronavirus vaccine has been given a massive boost to leaders from the e.u. and other nations have pledged pledged billions of dollars for research france germany and canada are among the nations that made pledges during an online donors summit norway's prime minister says it's regrettable that the u.s. was not taking part world health organizations director general says just developing a vaccine is not enough. because to me it is a measure of success and not be how fast we don't bend or to lose it will be how quickly we can distribute them none of us can accept a world in which some people are protected while islands remain exposed

this is an open to needy not only to defeat a common enemy but to forge a common future. let's be not a gentle joins me now from oxford and joe what are we expecting from the said pledging conference. one of the hope is nick that they managed to get together all of these countries minus of course the u.s. and china which i think is to the regret of the organizers largely being pushed this by the european union to get everybody else together and get together all of their respective efforts a lot of efforts going on in a lot of countries largely unilaterally now pool resources pool money pool thinking and pull this effort into a joined up global effort not just to get a vaccine but also to get better therapeutics for therapeutics at all to fight the symptoms of covert $1000.00 and to have much better much faster much more readily

accessible testing regimes in place and all of that together to manage what will be almost certainly in many countries a 2nd and possibly even a 3rd wave of coronavirus and the thinking is amongst the scientific community that even if you do get a vaccine and there are a number of countries an oxford university here is at the forefront of research into a vaccine even if you do get a vaccine within a couple of months say as donald trump a suggested it may take many many months beyond that to scale up that vaccine to make it available to potentially billions of people around the world to set up the networks of distribution to actually hand out that vaccine get it to the people who need it it may well be to the middle beyond of next year before that is in place what comes up before that is the therapeutics and again oxford university here at the forefront of that research getting drugs drug treatments available to help people deal with the symptoms of the disease potentially long before a vaccine becomes available so multiple strands to this conference multiple needs

for funding to be put in place but above all it's about getting a joined up global effort rather than individual countries racing and competing against one another and jane and there are many centers a research into vaccines and other therapeutic treatments around the world and one of which is where you are right now. yeah as i mentioned oxford university is at the forefront they've currently got a large scale the largest scale clinical trial going on into a vaccine which they are quite optimistic about we reported on this last week they've got a 1000 participants currently $6000.00 they're planning to have by the end of this month they've already had positive results in macaque monkeys rhesus macaque monkeys that's no guarantee in itself but it's a good sign and the talk the cautiously optimistic talk is that they may have a vaccine perhaps if everything goes extremely well by september and have the 1st few 1000000 doses of that vaccine available as i say many many months to come

before that is scaled up globally there are also a separate group of scientists here leading a project called recovery which is looking at a bunch of different existing drug treatments drug treatments that have been on the shelf for other uses in some cases for many many years they're testing those out at $160.00 hospitals around the u.k. they're looking for ones that work they're looking for ones that don't work to weed them out but they're also looking at combinations nick combination therapies the sorts of things we see for treating cancers for treating h.i.v. that's a virus that hasn't had a vaccine in nearly 40 years they're still looking but combination treatments work so here they believe they are getting on top of that research they may have some decent findings by the end of june and they may have combination treatments for covert 1000 long before vaccine a vaccine is available or agenda thanks very much indeed the general reporting there from london and that virtual summit hosted by the european commission is continuing right now that we can see some pictures of that world leaders one of

which is the israel prime minister benjamin netanyahu speaking right now and others doctors and so forth hoping to raise billions of dollars to fund research for a corona virus vaccine for ok the u.s. is not taking part in that campaign but as we've been hearing but overnight president donald trump said he's confident the u.s. will have a vaccine by the end of the year. he was speaking at a virtual town hall meeting on 3 questions from americans about his handling of the pandemic reynolds has this report we're joined now by president in a virtual town hall style event broadcast on the u.s. television network fox news president donald trump predicted rapid development of a covert $900.00 vaccine we are very confident that we're going to have a vaccine at the end of the year by the end of the or have a vaccine by the end of this year we think we're going to have a vaccine by the end of this year and we're pushing very hard trump went on to claim that he was not told till late january by u.s.

intelligence agencies about the spreading coronavirus some reports indicate that those agencies sounded the alarm on january 3rd on january 23rd i was told that there could be a virus coming in but it was of no really important other words it wasn't all we got to do some we got to do something it was a brief conversation trump blames china directly for the pandemic he promised a report with new information on how it originated and spread i think they made a horrible mistake and they don't want to admit it more than 68000 people in the u.s. have died from cold at 19 and the numbers are rising trump said the toll could reach 90100 number than he has cited before many public health experts are warning against premature lifting of stay at home orders saying that could lead to a new surge in infections. without giving any specific dates trump said the u.s.

needed to restart its economy soon we can't stay close as a country we're not going to have a country left the president ducked a question about safeguarding vulnerable nursing home residents and called white house reporters questions horrible it is widely considered that the presidential election in november will be a referendum on trump's handling of the pandemic rob reynolds al jazeera. what chinese state media says the u.s. has been throwing groundless accusations over the origins of covert 90 you said your state might pumpin has said there's significant evidence city originated in the chinese lab while the intelligence committee continues to do its work they should continue to do that and verify so that we are certain i can tell you that there is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in one that the best experts so far seem to think it was manmade have no reason to disbelieve that at this point that's the scientific consensus was not manmade or genetically

modified that's why i gree with that i've said i've seen their analysis i've seen the summary that you saw that was released publicly i have no reason to doubt that that is accurate that ok so just to be clear to you do not think it was manmade or genetically modified i've seen what the intelligence committee said i have no reason to believe that they've got it wrong. ok treaty years in beijing with more on the reaction that the pump has cummings. there's been a escalating war of words between the u.s. and china in recent months and this latest state media editorial is only adding fuel to that fire so it was in the global times which is a chinese state media newspaper and it's published both in english and mandarin and both versions really had searing words attacking secretary of state mike pompei oh in particular they called him a liar saying that he quote is engaging in filthy behavior to mislead the public and that he's lost his moral compass they've also accused michael pompei of really

only being interested in getting donald trump reelected in the next elections in november and in store king and the chinese hatred in order to do this now this is in response to the comments we had earlier of my composure saying that there's significant evidence that corba 1000 or even 8 in a chinese lad in the history of roller g.e. and they doing has flat out denied this it's also denied that it's engaging in any cover up would just information campaign and this editorial is really demanding that mike pompei and his colleagues really produce this evidence that they say they say that they have and there's just said look he's really just engaging according to state media in a bluff in a big bluff and really just continuing this anti china's smear campaign in order to divert attention from washington's mishandling of the crisis back home when i speak now to our white house correspondent could be how could he joins us live from washington so this strong response coming from the chinese state media and the

response back from the us administration at this point. well the statements from my pump a 0 echo report by the department of homeland security that essentially cuse this china of downplaying the threat of krona virus as it was starting to not only leave china but spread around the world now for his part the united states secretary of state has said there's enormous evidence that this originated in a lab a new one china have this echo something that the u.s. president has said as well we haven't seen that evidence but neither have we seen evidence in the united states from china to discount those claims so essentially this is a war of words i can tell you why this gains traction in the united states is the fact that it's well known in the u.s. that china is in the storage area government known 2 for secrecy not transparency so the question becomes in the united states whether or not the finger pointing by

china is even credible and so this is why the u.s. president is getting traction as he continues to try and blame china for what has resulted in a blitter ation of the u.s. economy prior to cope with 19 hitting the united states this was caught to me that was going strong people in the united states were enjoying historically low unemployment now we are 2 seeing more than 28000000 americans who are filing for unemployment claims and an economy that's been a blitter rate and so people in addition to the u.s. president are looking for someone to blame name we can tell you that while democrats here in the united states have used this as an effort to kind of weaponize this against the president to accuse him of being too slow 1 in terms of his response indicating that he may have ignored intelligence early on there certainly are many americans who don't like donald trump who on the issue of the crown of virus pandemic are at least listening to his claims that china may in some

way be responsible for the suffering that's being endured in the u.s. right now for you says the u.s. administration needs to produce evidence to back up is quick. well it would be nice to see the evidence i guess the problem becomes if it's considered intelligence that it's classified and so this is what makes it such as delicious football to bandy back and forth in terms of the sport of politics here in the united states and i guess when you're also considering a political adversary such as china this is a president that on the campaign trail in 2016 said that he wanted an america 1st agenda and he certainly followed up on that renegotiating trade deals with china and putting in place very tough tariffs and he had there is this suggestion that he may do this again as he continues to try and take punitive action even threatening to undo some of the global supply chains that right now have many american products

being made in china again this is something that some americans are now supporting given the fact that many were sort of oblivious to the fact that things like antibiotics and other medicines were being made in china now in dealing with this pandemic knowing that there have been some things that have not been readily available to americans that america 1st agenda is once again getting some support but this is still a very divided country by no means am i suggesting that suddenly democrats are all supporting and rallying around donald trump quite to the contrary but i can tell you in terms of private conversations that many people are having is that while they want to admit to liking donald trump they are admitting privately that some of the arguments he's making right now about american independence may be something worth considering in light of the pandemic in the suffering that has occurred here are going to be thanks very much indeed this can be hung from the white house of the nearly 2 months of lockdown italians can now go back to work and visit family

many businesses are also reopening in the worst hit european nation which has recorded nearly 29000 that's just jump tony is following developments for us from minot. well her the feelings of the italians are mixed there is a glimpse of hope that the worst has passed but many are concerned they face could bring to a 2nd wave of cases the government was criticised for not explaining how it will handle the health system in this 2nd phase as 4 and a half 1000000 people went back to work this morning as the country tried to restart the economy without pushing the curve of the infections up again today factories building sites and wholesale trade reopened and for the 1st time restaurants and bars are allowed to open to offer take way service there was also a lifting of the restrictions on personal freedom people are now allowed to go out for a walk and to visit their family but in these meetings they need to wear masks in

the hardest hit region of lombardy where i'm speaking from the mask is mandatory every time outside home that's why i'm wearing a social gatherings are still banned anyway and it's not possible to move from region to region sporting activities can now be practice also far from home like in parks that reopened but only to walk or run every 4 children remain close while schools were not restored until september so the next 2 weeks will be crucial to understanding the easing of the lockdown will continue or not. still ahead here on al-jazeera iran partially relaxes lockdown restrictions but the government is under pressure to go further. mosques by the 1000000 the challenge facing a factory in afghanistan as it works revive much needed protective equipment.

for. al of the cloud is gathering in the rains building again in china doesn't look much admittedly that does but that's out of the water and it won't produce very much rain for landmass atoll now it's all over southern china the orange tops the heaviest stuff just on the northern fringes will hon but you can see the cloud never really goes away it should pulse this time the it should give you heavy rain for a day or 2 then back off is doing just that with hands for cross reflects that is just giving light rain steady temperature regime and it's fairly humid to $26.00 dropping turny about 20 or $22.00 overnight big showers seem likely again in parts of norm borneo possibly the philippines i think less so but the concentration is further west in sumatra just off the coast that orange circulation is a tropical system trying to develop just south of the equator drift out into the indian ocean but it does indicate heavy rain is likely in the form of

a new shot in sumatra and up in singapore and beyond a big shot of the or the day and the over the months for northern india you see a forecast cluster there going out towards west bangor and bangladesh cowboy shockey is the name of these dangerous thunderstorms particularly in bangladesh and they're in the current forecast. to. talk to al jazeera we ask what your force were when you saw that document for the 1st story we listen to after the war saying you know you have been to go build you know the stage of you know what we will not be with you we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matter on al-jazeera play an important role protecting it would. ringback face.

but again you watch al-jazeera a reminder of our top stories this hour and the search for a coronavirus vaccine has received a significant funding boost more than $5000000000.00 has been pledged by nations so far in a global video conference taking place right now u.s. and china that not taking part. donald trump says he's confident the u.s. will have a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year the president made the prediction cheering a virtual town hall meeting on the fox news channel the scientists believe it will take at least a year for vaccine is available. after 8 weeks in lockdown italy is starting to ease restrictions imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic construction and

manufacturing sectors are restarting people are also allowed to visit family members. now to some other world news and israel's political future could become clearer as supreme court judges hear final arguments about the legality of a new power power sharing deal 8 petitions have been filed against a coalition agreement between benjamin netanyahu benny gantz critics argue that netanyahu shouldn't be allowed to form a new government because of his indictment for corruption or false it is in a restaurant with more on how the supreme court might reach its decision. there were clues from yesterday's deliberations and exchanges between the 11 justices and the various attorneys for the parties involved it seemed pretty clear that the court was extremely sensitive about overstepping its bounds it wanted to make sure that the arguments were about the actual niceties and exactitude of the law which says that a prime minister doesn't have to step down if indicted but

a minister does what exactly is the status of netanyahu as a caretaker prime minister someone who is putting himself up to take on the job again properly does he hold a status a prime minister or a minister they were examining those sorts of things so that indicates that they are pretty likely to rule in favor of netanyahu on that question it doesn't necessarily mean that they will take a similar view on the intricacies of this deal we have to see how the arguments play out there is a huge amount of pressure on the high court though not to undo all this work after 3 consecutive elections which of not yielded a result there's a good deal of political pressure on that front and also there been threats on the high court that if they were. netanyahu supporters terms overstepped their mark in all of this then there could be retaliation taken attempts to try to undermine some of their powers in the future so that's the context in which they're operating today. to nigeria which is lifting the restrictions in 3 states imposed to curb the

spread of coronavirus residents of lagos of the will gradually be given more freedom in the next 6 weeks or exercising traveling to work will be allowed but schools and dine in restaurants they stay closed on addresses in the capital with more. there are people who are happy that some of these restrictions are being lifted but there are or it's also cautious optimism but are people in fact were really really afraid that this could be premature because you're talking about and lifting restrictions at a time. when. corona virus infection rates are going high debts of also going high from the time the nigerian government imposed knock down 5 weeks ago to this time i think cases of nearly. multiply tenfold in across nigeria so 'd right now we just came back from town looking at some of these places

after the announcement by the government that today people should start going out where they must yes a lot of people most people are where the mosque that we so but there are people who are actually not wearing them and talking about social distancing it's quite a big problem go to the banks you see how crowded these places are and how people packed together we visited one of the major markets today and what we saw there was shocking a lot of people hundreds of people compacted in one small area trying to get into the market which by the way has not open yet as of the time we left out please so it's it's a bit warry for some people that this is coming at a time when these cases are rising and that nothing much is going on in terms of large scale testing what we hear from the government is a few 1000 tests can be done every day but there are more states that have in the

last 2 or 3 weeks been also recording serious cases for example the case of qana where unexplained deaths have happened in the past 2 or 3 weeks now the authorities are coming to tell us that these days most of these that were actually a covered $1000.00 related. the hardest hit country the middle east is reopening some mosques but iran's capital tehran remains a virus hotspot president hassan rouhani says social distancing is more important than collective per cent is in terre. iran's government announced the names of more than $100.00 towns and cities across the country that they now consider safe or white zones these are places that health officials say have seen a dramatic drop in the rate of infection of the coronavirus mosques have the green light to go ahead and reopen their doors and in some cases friday prayer congregations will also go back to normal but it has to be said these are small population centers in a very big country to iran still one of the worst affected places in iran this city

remains a red zone major religious sites into one musher than home in the cities places that were considered hotspots for the virus at the start of this outbreak those remain closed for now when the pandemic began in iran the government response was about weighing what was good for public health against what was good for the country's economic health some say iran implemented a lockdown too late and reopened too early now in the islamic fasting month of ramadan the country's leaders are under pressure to find a balance between managing public health and the country's spiritual health we have to remember that modern day iran was built on the back of a religious revolution this is a country that has a large and vocal population of religious people and this is one of the most religious months of the islamic calendar it's a time of religious gatherings and the government will no doubt be feeling the pressure to reopen places of mass worship some mosques like the one behind me local neighborhood houses of god have restarted limited operating hours individuals can go inside and pray throughout the day but as long as they maintain social

distancing measures it's a small but significant nod by the government to the country's religious identity but bigger gatherings of any kind for any sort of mass worship remain forbidden. to japan which is holding off easing its measure instead it's extending its month long state of emergency until the end of this month at least prime minister shinzo abbes says health experts will assess the situation in 10 days to see if a further extension is needed nationwide emergency measures announced a month ago empowered local governors to urge businesses to close and people to stay. when you are likely to know enough japan has not experienced the explosive spread of infections like in other countries and some positive results are beginning to appear such as the effective reproduction number of the whole country falling below but at present there is still a considerable number of new infections and the number of infections is not to climbing at a sufficient level because the fountains of migrant workers stranded in

a city in india have fought with police. as workers from across india have been stuck in syria since covert 1000 restrictions began in late march they say the government hasn't provided them with promised food and train tickets home government leaders say doctors need time to check for infractions 1st. a factor in afghanistan is making personal protective equipment for the 1st time that the plan is to make $5000000.00 affordable masks which cost a fraction of imported ones so how it as this report. suited and booted these factory workers are practicing a social distancing and ensuring health and safety standards are maintained they're making thousands of masks a day by hand it can push the. good mother seaboard like many of the countries around the world there's a shortage of good to protect afghans against covert 19 you know of genocide is

a poor country doesn't have enough money to spend for protecting our people i myself try to hold of ghana stand because international market the people good causes out the $60.00 buy them here just in $5.00 with the same a standard the factory in the capital kabul is also providing employment opportunities because. i was jobless before this and was doing nothing in lockdown as home but i'm lucky that i have this job serving my people the government says corona virus has infected close to 3000 people but the true total is feared to be much higher there are not enough testing kits and it's difficult to track case numbers especially in rural areas nearly a 3rd of $500.00 people tested for cope with 19 out of a population of 5000000 in the capital kabul were positive in a bid to contain the virus the nationwide lockdown has been extended until may 24th but is widely been ignored by the public this is not

a complete and lockdown why hasn't the government insured and implemented a complete lockdown 2 factors primarily one is. much to unemployment and poverty i mean a hungry man is an angry man you can not keep him and push him to be at home or up to a quarter of a 1000000 poor families living in kabul started receiving 10 pieces of bread a day in the 1st phase of the government's handouts program the charity save the children warns millions of afghan children are its risk of going hungry. food is also being distributed by community volunteers going door to door to raise safety awareness during the pandemic to how most. poor people are contacting us for help but unfortunately we cannot provide enough help we prioritize the poorest of the poor for example the widows who have no want to take care of them. decades of war in afghanistan has damaged the health system hospitals rely on aid from the world

health organization in countries such as china and turkey despite the foreign help afghanistan remains poorly prepared for a major outbreak sort of al-jazeera. this is the answer these are the top stories in the search for a coronavirus vaccine has received a significant funding boost france germany canada and japan are among the nations that have pledged billions of dollars during an online donors summit the united states and china event not taking part in the world health organization the director general says just developing about it is not enough. to meet measurable science and. it will be out. nanofibers. some. wild cards

remain exposed this is an opportunity not only to the seeds coming together but to forge. a future after 8 weeks in lockdown italy is telling to ease restrictions imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic the construction of manufacturing sectors are restarting and people are also allowed to visit family members. donald trump says he's confident the u.s. will have a corona virus vaccine by the end of the year the president made the prediction during a virtual town hall meeting on the fox news channel but scientists believe it will take at least a year before a vaccine is available. chinese state media says the united states has been lodging groundless accusations against beijing that's after the u.s. secretary of state might compare said there is significant evidence that covert 19 a region aided in a chinese lab his comments are the latest in a growing u.s. backlash against china over its initial handling of the outbreak. of reopened in

areas of iran the government team say for the capital tehran remains a virus hotspot mass prayers a ban because the president says social distancing is more important. some of the clubs are also coming off in 3 nigerian states residents of lagos abuser and good will gradually be given more freedom over the next 6 weeks to science and travelling to work will be allowed in schools and dine in restaurants they stay closed. israel's political future could become clearer as supremes court judges hear final arguments about the legality of a new power sharing deal a petitions have been filed against a coalition agreement between benjamin netanyahu benny gantz critics argue that netanyahu should be allowed to form a new government because of his indictment for corruption. but today with headlines more news after talked about syria by phone or. what impact will call did 19 of the drop in the oil price have on the race to the white house can gold from

survive these historic setbacks and does joe biden have what it takes to beat a. special coverage on i'll just. see. the renaissance astronomer nikolaus compared to a close one said for it is the duty of an astronomer to compose the history of the celestial motions through careful and expert study the parent of this was a man who challenge the theories of the universe known to humanity up until the 16th century his observations led to the discovery that the planets revolve around the sun not the earth as people thought deed our celestial objects have been observed and studied since the beginning of time the planets and stars have helped us understand the cause of most the way it functions and its impact.