this is g w news live from berlin and donald trump freezes funding to the world health organization the us president excuses the body of covering up the spread of coronavirus and mismanaging its response to the pandemic also coming up on the show . the international monetary fund john fund that warns of a bleak forecast for the world but the coronavirus smothering a growth by a mouth says 2020 could be the worst it turned out since the great depression. and south korea holds the world's 1st national election in the coronavirus era people

there are casting their ballots wearing masks and plastic gloves while staying at least a metre apart. i'm claire richardson welcome to the show as donald trump faces criticism of his early handling of the coronavirus crisis he has delivered another blow to the international world order the u.s. president says he has halting u.s. payments to the world health organization he accused it of failing in its response to the pandemic saying lives could have been saved if the w.h.o. had done a better job investigating earlier reports in china today i'm instructing my administration to halt funding of the world health organization while a review is conducted to assess the world. health organization's role in

severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the corona virus everybody knows what's going on there american taxpayers provide between $400000000.00 and $500000000.00 per year to the w.h.o. and contras china contributes roughly $40000000.00 a year and even less as the organization's leading sponsor the united states has a duty to insist on full accountability well let's go now to our correspondent in washington d.c. jeff on president trump has halted funding for the world health organization what reason did he give up for this decision and does he have the authority to actually do that as a number one he gave a very blatant explanation for this he basically says let me quote that he will halt funding while a review is conducted by his administration quote to assess the w h o's role in severely mismanaging and covering up covering up the spread of the corona

virus that's the reason he gave now can he do that can you hold the funding and we're talking about $400.00 to $500000000.00 every year yes he can but as you can see in the wording here he leaves himself a back door he says he will review the matter and we stalled actually here in washington d.c. that this is going to happen because he had to work through this last week already so here you have it review will be conducted by the administration and the outcome miami may be that the u.s. is now as a major funder for the w.h.o. not paying any more for or contributing to the w h o's mission well for now what will this lack of funding it mean for the w.h.o. which has been spearheading the global response to the corona virus. that's a very good question and i think that's also part of trump's culture lucier he's

trying to stir the pot to w o w h o has now to absolutely do a little bit. and for the time being trying to skate by without potentially u.s. significant u.s. funding. i really actually don't think it's going to come to this in the end that the u.s. will slowly withdraw all funding of the w.h.o. because nobody enjoys critical functions not just for the u.s. but for the rest of the world and as soon as you say whole pandemics epidemics and what the w.h. do does in its mission another word for the u.s. critical comes to mind that's national security anything the w.h.o. does and doesn't do has an impact on national security faults and and estimates here in the united states for the united states. in washington d.c. thank you time to take

a look now at other news around the world former u.s. president barack obama has endorsed a democratic contender joe biden in the race for the white house mr obama announced his support for his former vice president in a video message describing biden as the right leader to guide the u.s. a through one of its quote darkest times firefighters in ukraine have extinguished a fire that was threatening at the chernobyl nuclear power plant the forest fires near the abandon site had been burning for 10 days the chernobyl nuclear plant suffered a meltdown in 1986 that spread radioactive fallout across europe. in india the world's biggest coronavirus lockdown is being extended to at least may 3rd prime minister narendra modi spoke to the nation in a televised address saying people's lives were more important than the economy the restrictions affect 1300000000 people and have left millions of workers dependent

on food handouts. profits at 2 major u.s. banks plunged in the 1st quarter wells fargo reported an 89 percent drop in earnings that says it sets aside almost $4000000000.00 to cover potential losses on loans due to the coronavirus pandemic earlier j.p. morgan chase an ounce to 69 percent drop in quarterly earnings. today saw a bleak forecast the likes of which the world hasn't seen since the 1930 s. the international monetary fund says the global economy is on track this year for the kind of downturn at their wrecked economies and lives during the great depression and it has everything to do with the far reaching measures it designed to save lives in the coronavirus pandemic. amid lockdowns business shutdowns and travel restrictions due to the covert $1000.00 pandemic the outlook is bleak for the global economy the i.m.f.

is now forecasting a decline of 3 percent this year before the pandemic emerged as a grave threat to public health and economic activity the organization was expecting over 3 percent growth in 2020. the i.m.f. chief economist says the current measures to contain the pandemic make a severe slowdown on avoidable markets but this is a deep recession it is a recession that involves solvency issues it is deeper isn't that in was unemployment rates going up dramatically and these tend to leave scars and while there are many very strong policy actions being taken some of this will spill over into the end the 2nd half of this year into 2021 the i.m.f. is optimistic about a robust recovery next year predicting global growth of 5.8 percent the institution is providing loans to nations that need help in dealing with a pandemic. we are actively deploying our one trillion dollar lending capacity

to support vulnerable countries including through rapid dispersing emergency financing. and debt service relief to our poorest member countries and we are calling on official credit has to do to say the argument of caution that its forecast is clouded by uncertainty about the path the corona virus will take a 2nd outbreak of the pandemic next year could make the economic collapse far more extreme. polls have opened in south korea's national assembly elections with unprecedented measures in place to deal with the coronavirus before even being allowed to cast their ballots the voters must wear masks stand at least one meter apart have their temperature taken disinfects their hands and wear gloves the government's handling of the covert 1000 outbreak has dominated the campaign more than a quarter of the war that

a quarter of the population have already voted by post or through early voting. let's cross now to journalist our frank smith who is standing by for us in seoul this is the world's 1st a major election since the start of the global coronavirus pandemic how is it even possible to hold an election under these conditions. well a couple of things happened here in south korea they're really on the tail end of the curve the south korean government and the measures you know of held by the public have really stunted the corona virus outbreak here and now you have about 30 cases per day emerging there's about $10000.00 cases in the country all together so people are feeling a little bit safer and as you mentioned in the introduction they're taking extraordinary measures at the polls i visited the advance polling station in advance polling station earlier this week last friday and saturday and saw the

measures that were taken the may include as you mentioned social distancing everybody and i mean everybody wearing masks everybody getting sanitized at the desks as they went in to the pools and having their temperature checked both with the thermometer gun and with a heat screen and again disinfectant as you as you mentioned so the national election commission here has really done a good job of preparing voters for a safe elections when addition to these preparations what are authorities are doing it to ensure voter turnout to get as many people as possible casting their ballots . well as i mentioned earlier they had advance voting on friday and saturday and that brought as as you said a record number of about 27 percent out to the polls i think some people wanted to vote early because of the coronavirus that wanted to avoid crowds they do have some $14300.00 or so polling stations across the country they're looking to to

reach sort of a 60 percent electorate threshold and again almost half of those people have already voted in addition for those $50000.00 people that are in self more in team they've arranged to enable them to vote after pools normally close at 6 o'clock they're going to then that for an hour and those people that are in cell 495-0000 or so are going to be gable to come out they're going to be monitored they're going to have some special measures in terms of their hygenic in the general public's safety so again they're doing everything to bring out a high turnout and how important are these elections for south korea well a couple of things the liberal parties here there's a bloc there's the democratic party and then some other affiliated parties they're in power right now and they're looking to extend that to reach a 180 threshold out of

a 300 member national assembly if they do that they'll be able to pass almost all the legislation that they might want in addition one of the writings here is the main one of the main writings here and in seoul in the capital seoul is a contest between the former prime minister under the current president enough young and the former president under the into peached conservative leader. those 2 are considered prime presidential candidates for that election that will take place in 2022 frank smith and saw thank you. well here in germany people are waiting to hear what chancellor angela merkel will say on wednesday about scaling back the lockdown here she is due to meet with state leaders to discuss recommendations that include a gradually reopening schools and stores but any rollback of the current restrictions will involve a delicate balancing act. germany has

a tough decision to make keep restrictions in place like france or like austria start the country down the path towards normal life the consequences could be enormous either way he's saying restrictions could put people's physical health at risk but there are also risks to keeping them in place and the contradictions are warranted but they have a very high cost not just an economic cost but also a social and psychological cost we need to think about how we can transition responsibly step by step into some sort of renormalizing nation and i think we need to do that quite soon. germany's public health institute the r k i is not against relaxation but wary of how it happens as of tuesday morning the r.k. ised latest figures for germany were $125098.00 total cases that's an increase of $2902.00 from the previous day total deaths are now at $2969.00

overall new cases have slowed that's the good news the r.k. i said but they've plateaued at a highly. we should do it step by step and keep control over the outbreak and make sure that we're able to keep treating patients patient and 100. on wednesday the chancellor is set to discuss the country's options with the leaders of germany's the 16 states as a federal system they have to be on board with what happens next a final decision is expected shortly thereafter a change in social distancing regulations would require all to comply but is this image shows even politicians and doctors sometimes have difficulty following the rules. you're watching the news from berlin remember you can get all the latest headlines on the or on our website at d w dot com and you can follow us on twitter and instagram too at the unit i'm claire

richard sennett there be more news for you coming soon for now though thanks for watching. all of the stories that matter to. us. whatever it takes to get the running no cut. it. made for mines.