every generation has a higher purpose. ours. corona virus not seen in record time that's the aim of global leaders pledged billions to speed up research. columcille raman you're watching al-jazeera life my headquarters here in doha also coming up families are reunited and millions returned to work as italy eases a 2 month lockdown. chinese state media slams a u.s. claims that the virus originated in a lab in woodland calling on washington to provide evidence. also israel's

political future in the balance the top court hears the final arguments to a new power sharing deal. welcome to the program the search for a coronavirus vaccine has been given a massive boost leaders from the e.u. and other nations have pledged billions of dollars for research a video conferencing including presidents prime ministers health officials and donors is aiming to raise $8500000000.00 to speed up the process the united states where nearly $70000.00 people have died didn't participate the world health organizations director general says just developing a vaccine is not enough general help has more from oxford. scientists here at oxford university are at the forefront in the search for both a vaccine and for successful drug treatments that could be saving lives will be for

a vaccine becomes widely available well earlier i spoke to professor martin landry he's heading the worlds. largest clinical trial for covert 19 looking at existing drugs off the shelf medicines if you like trying to find out whether one of them might be successful in treating covert 19 when i began by asking him whether he and his colleagues believe a vaccine absolutely will be found and what the timeline might be there isn't a guarantee we know from previous conditions with hiv or malaria that people have been searching for decades for vaccines and been unsuccessful despite best efforts there having said that there's a lot of signs of encouragement not only from colleagues and also oxford but worldwide and some people refer. to a vaccine i think it's raised the question is what are you racing against what we're racing against is the virus in the impact of of the virus on society health and the economy not racing against each other to my mind it doesn't matter where

a vaccine comes from a vaccine would be incredibly useful and incredibly effective. in addressing the challenges what the world needs almost more urgently than a vaccine in order to reopen in order to guard against a 2nd wave in order for all of those things to happen are therapeutics treatments a cure i think effective treatments are in sight and they're critical they're critical because patients are dying today and tomorrow and the day after and even with the best will in the world with 18 months off having a scaled up vaccine at best we need treatments that deal with the problem of now well you heard professor landry very is not looking for a cure all or a silver bullet what he's looking for is a drug that helps he's discarding the ones that don't he's looking perhaps for a combination of drugs that might work the sort of combination therapy we see in some cancer treatments or in the treatment of h.i.v. and there's a salutary tool h.i.v.

a virus that changed the world nearly 40 years ago there's still no vaccine for it but successful drug treatments mean the world has learned to live with hiv. well staying in europe italy has begun loosening its lockdown measures and that means people can go back to work visit family businesses are reopening after 8 weeks in lockdown alexey o'brien reports. the hard because they've been waiting for for 2 months. old grandfather and granddaughter 3 united. during the korean teen we were desperate to having children because now i can't even speak for how excited i am to excited we have only seen her with video calls for 2 months but it was not the same it couldn't be the same. bundle of quarter when i saw her my heart stopped it seemed to be a century since i'd seen her after the longest lockdown in europe family visits

ever allowed but only of relatives live in the same region. elsewhere the queues were back at rome's main a terminal station though it's not just take it but temperatures being taken. but a lot of the point is that obviously after staying at home for almost 60 days it feels good i feel good and i feel safe. across as a more than 4000000 people were back at work as construction sites and factories reopened and restaurants were allowed to sell takeaway food but taking public transport is still being discouraged by government and mosques a compulsory when sharing public spaces and doors. funerals remain limited to 15 people but the bereaved able to lay flowers on the graves of the did the florists nearby carefully disinfected. with more than 210000 reported cases and around $29000.00 deaths italy's one of the worst affected countries government

leaders fear the loosening of restrictions will lead to a resurgence in cases health care workers are taking extra measures to track infections isolate clusters and make sure hospitals and overwhelmed again. want to get every go to any other mascot we're being careful trying not to do too many things but at least we're finally outside and breathing some fresh air and families making the most of the sunshine and parks that have been reopened playgrounds remain off limits but they're happy because finally today they have opened after having close to 4 month and a half even though obviously my daughter was disappointed to find the playground are blocked off there are many reminders that life isn't the same with school cinemas and theaters shot indefinitely but those ancient country has witnessed plagues before and recovered italians just need to find a balance between staying safe and embracing their new found freedom. brian

al-jazeera. said to africa now where some of the clubs are also coming off in 3 nigerian states residents of lagos of. will gradually be given more freedom over the next 6 weeks outdoor exercise and travelling to work will be allowed but schools and dining restaurants stay closed i would address has more from the capital of. there are people who are happy that some of these restrictions are being lifted but there are all it's also cautious optimism that up people in fact we're really really afraid that this could be premature because you're talking about lifting restrictions at a time when. corona virus infection rates are going high deaths have also gone high from the time the nigerian government imposed knocked down 5 weeks ago to this time i think cases of nearly. multiplied tenfold in across

nigeria so 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 saw but there are people 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 were packed together we visited one of the major markets in a bill today and what we saw there was shocking lots 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 that please so 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 were actually a covered 1000 related. the president says he's confident the u.s. will have a kind of virus vaccine by the end of the year and he was speaking at a virtual town hall meeting on fox news and some questions from americans about his handling of the pandemic rob runnels ripples 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 coal that 19 and the numbers are rising trump said the toll could reach 90000 higher 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 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 chinese state media says the u.s. has been throwing groundless accusations the origins of covert 19 u.s. secretary of state my pump am has said that there is significant evidence it 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 one that the

best experts so far seem to think it was manmade have no reason to disbelieve that at this point is the scientific consensus was not manmade or genetically modified that's right i grieve 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 well katrina you is in beijing with more on the reaction to pump a as comments. 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 is significant evidence that corvette 19 a region aged in a chinese lab in the history of roller g.e. and beijing has flat out denied this it's also denied that it's engaging in any coverup or dissed 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 they suggest 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. still ahead

here on out iran possibly relaxes lock down restrictions but the government is under pressure to go. by the 1000000 the challenge facing a factory in afghanistan is to provide much needed protective acquittance. hello the cloud is gathering in the rains building again in china doesn't look much admittedly that does but that's out over the water and it won't produce very much rain for landmass it's oh no it's all over southern china the orange tops the heaviest stuff just on the northern fringes will hon but you see the cloud never really goes away it should pulse this time the it should give you heavy rain for day to the back of his doing just that will hands for cross reflects that is just getting light rain steady temperature regime and it's fairly humid to 26 dropping

turn about 20 or 22 overnight big showers seem likely again in parts of known 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 new showers in sumatra and up in singapore and beyond a big shot of the or the day and the over the months for northern india do you see a forecast cluster there going on towards west bengal and bangladesh cowboy shockey is the name of these dangerous thunderstorms particularly in bangladesh they're in the current forecast. on counting a cost famines of biblical proportions the coronavirus is at the end of the global

economy so what does that mean for our prudes of lives plus grants or loans as italy and spain easter want downs can the eager grades at times not a trillion girl rescue. cutting the cost on al-jazeera. save humanity i really really not getting anywhere near. the bike you want to launch as a reminder of our top stories the search for a coronavirus vaccine has received a significant funding boost during a teleconference dozens of countries pledged $8000000000.00 to speed up research

the u.s. and china did not take part after 8 weeks in lockdown italy is starting to ease restrictions the construction and manufacturing sectors of restarting people are also allowed to visit family members and chinese state media say the u.s. has been throwing groundless accusations around over the origins of covert 19 and that's a response to u.s. secretary of state might pompei are claiming there's significant evidence the virus started in a chinese land. to some of the day's other news and israel's political future could become clearer supreme court judges hear final arguments about the legality of the new power sharing deal 8 petitions have been filed against the coalition agreement between benjamin netanyahu and benny gantz critics argue that netanyahu shouldn't be allowed to form a new government because of his indictment for corruption or a force that is in west jerusalem 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 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 probably doesn't hold a status of prime minister or a minister they were examining those sorts of things or 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 in 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. over to geneva. 2 general is giving an update on the pandemic from geneva let's listen in to day countries came together not only to play a huge their financial support but to also pledge there to commit them and to ensure all the people can access lifesaving tools for. 19 accelerating development of the products but at the same time axis to on. recent violence is in science are enabling the

world to move at incredible speed to develop these tools but the true measure of success will not only be how fast we can never hope safe and effective tools it will be how equally we can distribute them none of us can accept a world in which some people are protected while others are not everybody should be protected none of ours are safe until all of us are safe the potential for continued waves of infection of covered 19 across the globe demands that every single person on the planet be protected from this disease deadly remains committed to

working with all countries and partners to accelerate the development and production of vaccines that mystics interact via ticks and to ensure their equitable distribution this is an opportunity for the world to come together to come front a common threat but also to forge a common future a future in which all people enjoy their right to the highest attainable standard of health and the products that deliver that's right that's what we mean by held for all we have been saying it for the last more than 70 years since the that lito was created but i think given the experience we have now and the difficulties we're going through it's time to make it happen as for all but one of the best tools is also one

of the most basic. clean hands the simple act of cleaning hands can be the difference between life and death and remains one of the most important public health measures for protecting individuals families and communities against covet 19 and many other diseases tomorrow is hand hygiene day and reminder of the importance of clean hands for held workers and for all of us at the same time we must remember that millions of people around the world are not able to practice this most basic of precautions around the world and less done to deserve health care facilities are equipped with 100 hygiene stations and sri

1000000000 people like soap and water at home this is an old problem that requires new and vastly increased attention if we will to stop covered 19 or any other source of infection and keep health workers safe we must dramatically increase investments in soap access to water and alcohol based hundreds to more also marks the international day of the midwife this is an opportunity to remember the vital role that midwives play all over the world in providing safe and effective care for women and newborns research shows that interventions delivered by midwives can

a verdict of 80 percent of all maternal is still birds and neonatal does. the service of midwives is actually a lifeline for many childbirth is going to be one of the most please just moments you know woman's life but it can also be one of the most dangerous as you know. midwives are essential for guiding and caring for a woman so with their entire pregnancy and the critical moment of childbirth but we need more timid wives in all countries specially low resource countries to mark hand hygiene day and day international day of the midwife we're calling

all people to stop what they're doing to noon tomorrow to club for nurses and midwives and thank them for their or in their living save and effective care doctor to address given the director general of the world health organization just touching upon the global pledge an online conference that had in the short time ago $7400000000.00 euros equates to around $8100000000.00 to shy of the target that they wanted but certainly an impressive amount has now been collected in it to try and move forward and find a vaccine and also use that money towards complementary therapies medicines and remedies try and combat covert 19 also touched on the fact that tomorrow cheese day will be international hand hygiene day and also international day of the midwife now the hardest hit country in the middle east is reopening some mosques but iran's

capital tehran remains a virus hotspot present rouhani says social distancing is more important than collective prayer. is in the capital. 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 time trade is going to stand is making personal protective equipment for the 1st time now the plan is to make $5000000.00 foldable last which cost

a fraction of imported ones set of tires that has more. 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 though. it's good mother received or 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 the national market the p.p. 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 24 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. mushroom 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 own 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. 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. what you all deserve it means the whole rob a reminder of our top news stories the search for a coronavirus vaccine has received a significant funding boost during a teleconference dozens of countries pledged $8000000000.00 to speed up research

the u.s. and china did not take part the world health organizations director general has reiterated that any vaccine needs to be available to everyone none of us can accept a world in which some people are protected while others are not everybody should be protected none of ours are safe until all of us are safe the potential for continued waves of infection of course viewed 19 across the globe demands that every single person on the planet be protected from this disease. donald trump says he's confident the u.s. will have a krone virus vaccine by the end of the year the president made the prediction during a virtual town hall meeting on fox news but scientists believe it'll take at least a year before a vaccine is available. in chinese state media says the u.s.

has been lodging ground as argues ations against beijing and that's after the u.s. secretary of state by pompei is said there's significant evidence that covert 19 originated in the chinese lab his comments are the latest in a growing u.s. backlash against china over its initial handling of the outbreak 8 weeks after a lockdown italy is starting to ease restrictions imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic the construction and manufacturing sectors of restarting people are also allowed to visit family members and some of the plants are also coming off in 3 nigerian states residence of lagos will gradually be given more freedom over the next 6 weeks exercise and travelling to work will be allowed with schools and dining restaurants stay closed those are the headlines and back with more news in half an hour to stay with us on our sara.

shall carry this is counting the cost on al-jazeera or look at the world of business economics this week famines of biblical proportions the coronavirus is up and at the global economy and supply chains with nations under lockdown so what does that mean for food supplies. from the richest nation where low paid farm workers fear they could be victims of the pandemic to one of the poorest nations zimbabwe and its need for food aid. as italy and spain start the tentative processes.