this is news coming to you live from berlin. freezes funding for the world health organization u.s. president accuses it of covering up the spread of the corona virus and mismanaging its response to the pandemic. has come under fire. this is north and the logical step for the president. to return to so. the america we have to. bribe british prime minister gordon brown warns that the west will be to blame if the world health organization's efforts to help contain the

virus in developing countries fail. as some european countries gradually lift their last downs will germany follow suit transform america when those nations 16 regional leaders are due to hold a video conference to decide what to do next and a sad anniversary in paris is exactly a year since fire badly damaged notre dame cathedral the malays shocked people in france sent around the world restoration work and so far been slow but a couple of filmmakers have been able to use for actual reality to show how the future looked and how it will look in the future. hello i'm terry martin welcome to the program donald trump has instructed his administration to halt funding of the world health organization. trump says the

w.h.o. failed in its early response to the coronavirus u.s. president who has himself come under fire for his handling of the pandemic said the w.h.o. should have done a better job of investigating initial reports from china u.n. secretary general antonio responded by saying that now is not the time to end support for the w.h.o. he said his work was absolutely critical to the global effort to combat. the w.h.o. field and its basic judy to save lives those were the words of president trump place united states freeze on funding for the u.n. agency today i'm instructing my administration to halt funding of the world health organization while a review is conducted as the organization's leading sponsor the united states has a duty to insist on full accountability trump has repeatedly criticized the w.h.o. throughout the pandemic this time claiming it's biased towards china is responsible

for the viruses rapid spread to other parts of the world had the w.h.o. done its job to get medical experts into china to objectively assess the situation on the ground and to china's lack of transparency the outbreak could have been contained at its source with very little death trump says the roughly $400000000.00 in annual donations will now be paused and decision drew a sharp rebuke from the german foreign minister. said in a tweet blaming does not help the virus knows no borders we should work together closely against kuwait 191 of the best investment is to strengthen the un especially the underfunded w.h.o. for example in the development and distribution of tests and vaccines bill gates to call the move dangerous. the u.s.

is the washed affected country in the world with more recorded cases and deaths than anywhere else trumps handling of the pandemic has also been whitely criticized and his opponents say this latest ones meant a month to nothing more than a deflection tactic. before u.k. prime minister gordon brown has been calling for a stronger global response to that had demick and he joins us now from fife in scotland mr brown thanks for being with us what to make of doll trumps decision to stop funding the world health organization where you know in march the 26 don't want signed or communicate that he was present at the meeting of the g 20 when he said he would strengthen the w.h.o. as mandate they would increase the funding for disaster response they would give more money so it could develop a new virus and they would help it deal with the problems facing the developing countries this is not only in the logical step by the president it's an act of self wrong because to protect ourselves locally in germany or in america we have to act

globally and if this disease has a 2nd and 3rd round in africa or in the developing world and then comes back to the west then we'll be to blame for not helping those african countries at the w. jurors in total supporting protect themselves when they have underdeveloped health systems and through social social safety nets who counted oct the social distancing are not the measures that we are adopting in the west i want to talk about those african governments those african countries in this pandemic in just a moment but 1st which some national governments leading the response to this pandemic so far have transnational organizations like the w.h.o. or the un failed. i think each individual organizations trying its best but you know when i had to deal with others with the global financial crisis in 2009 we were only able to say we will do whatever it can do which is what you've got to be able to say when we brought everyone together we brought the international

organizations i'm after in the world bank of the un of the w.h.o. but we'd also brought national leaders together in one forum the g 20 and what's missing at the moment is this concerted action together by world leaders and even if america is reluctant to start with and even if china is operating bilaterally i think the european union japan the rest of asia africa pushing us along i think we could get this global coordination and it's necessary one to finance the search for a cure and for a vaccine and from diagnostics and therapeutics secondly to build capacity because we're building each other at the moment for limited capacity we've got to build capacity in test kits and build it and ventilators never thing else and suddenly of course driven the 2nd and 3rd round of disease which has to be done by acting collectively and you recently helped pen an open letter to the g. 20 it was signed by more than $200.00 former world leaders and called for a coordinated global response to the krajina virus code do you think should lead

that response. i think we need 2 things 1st of all a pledging conference to deal with the financing of global howth and i do believe that the european union has a major role to play in in leading this bringing and japan canada korea and then bringing in china and america and i think secondly we need a g. 20 tassels we need this coordination on a week to week day to day level if we're going to get the world economy back to growth then there will be a moment when we need to expand demand in the economy at the moment we're in employment protection soon we will have to restore demand and that we were cried coordinated fiscal munna trade and central bank policies and it will also require the interaction is the 2 sions the i.m.f. and the world bank to be given by the politicians the power in the money that will enable them to support developing country economies g 20 finance ministers are about to release their global action plan as a former finance minister yourself chancellor of the specs checker in the u.k.

do you think that plan should include debt relief for africa definitely i've got an article in the washington post today with larry summers which is saying $76.00 of the low income countries in the world should get immediate debt relief well this year and for next year not just for a few months but they are spending more on debt interest payments are the moment when they are on their health systems it is against our self interests that lead not spending on health we have got to help them do that one of the quickest ways is debt relief we will have to decrease they special drawing rights of the i.m.f. we will have to give the world bank and the i.m.f. the power to lend and to grant more money all these things are going to be necessary and it ought to be synchronized and brought together in one plan and i hope and try to win the i.m.f. and world bank meet they will agree that a plan that includes debt relief is a required it has to be pushed forward as fran thank you so much for talking with us that was former u.k.

prime minister gordon brown thank you. and here's a quick roundup of some of the other coronavirus developments around the world the world health organization says it's certain the world has still not seen the peak of the outbreak it says 90 percent of confirmed cases are so far in europe and the united states a french court has ordered e-commerce company was on to limit deliveries to essential and to conduct a thorough assessment of health measures at its warehouses denmark is reopening childcare centers primary schools and some shops today it was one of the 1st countries to in europe to impose a law down finland is lifting roadblocks rabbits' capital its 1st measure easing its restrictions and a 99 year old man has become the oldest known patient in brazil to recover from the virus he's now left hospital. well with some countries in europe now starting to ease lock down restrictions the european commission has released preconditions that

eve member states should fulfill european commission president. said they lockdowns had comet quote an enormous price but that they've been necessary here in germany the number of new cases has gone up after 4 days of decline the restrictive measures imposed to combat the virus are due to expire on sunday jan so i'm going to ackles consulting with the premiers of germany's 16 states about what should happen next it's been 3 weeks since restrictions were implemented schools have remained closed restaurants have clear at that table as indefinitely and social distancing has largely become the known now as the number of new cases in germany slows albeit plateauing at a high level the german government faces the grave decision. begin relaxing measures or extend them beyond april 19th german chancellor angela merkel will discuss the possibilities in a telephone conference on wednesday with leaders of germany 16 states health

ministry and spawn has already hinted at a rollback but with caveats. 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 100000 suggestions from germany's national academy of sciences will be closely considered in talks including the gradual reopening of elementary and middle schools shops stores and nightclubs would follow restaurants would open next as long as social distancing was upheld facemasks would be obligatory and publicly available g.p.s. data could be used for contact tracing. but according to media reports on wednesday an extension of the current measures until may 3rd could still be on the table either way the consequences could be enormous easing restrictions could risk a spike in cases but there are also economic and societal risks to keeping them in

place. now it's catch up on some of the other stories making headlines around the world german police have arrested 4 suspected members of the so-called islamic state officials say the 4 men are believed to have been planning deadly attacks in the country including on u.s. installations all 4 suspects are from tajikistan. millions of people flocked to the polls in south korea's national parliamentary elections with unprecedented measures in place to deal with the coronavirus pandemic the vote is seen by some as a mid term referendum for president moon j.-m. exit polls project his party will win a majority. a new zealand's prime minister urges and says she and other top officials are taking a 20 percent pay cut for the next 6 months and so the stop was a symbolic acknowledgement of the struggle faced by many new zealanders frontline

staff will not be effective 3 feel it. the people of sudan in northeastern africa have been marking a year since the overthrow of the dictator omar al bashir hopes were high that the nation would be able to overcome 30 years of corruption and economic decline but those hopes are all still a long ways from being fulfilled as well as economic stagnation sudan is dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and swarms of locusts eating crops. caught up with a friend she made during made there during those heady days a year ago. it was a moment of relief and euphoria. 1121000. protesters in sudan's capital celebrate the removal of dictator i'm going to share . the months they dressed their lives on the streets had not been in vain it was there and then that i met mohammad who made

a photographer in the middle of the revolution. my pictures of for the coming generations the experience of the people in my photos should not be forgotten that . was a time of violence authorities often attacked the protesters. go the government has to bring justice to the people that died we are alive because of them everything that has happened is because they sacrificed their lives and those now considered murders by many are not forgotten but their families have not yet seen prosecutions . i asked prime minister hun duc about this issue back in february. with the constitutional committee which is guiding this transition. it's a very clear. undertaking that we start bush to get in committee so let us not jump

to conclusions. come duck heads a new government that was sworn in in august. after a transitional deal was struck between civilian. this is a time when sudan especially needs us. she might not be able to be at home to mark the anniversary but like millions of sudanese the heady days of hope in april 21000 will be etched in their memory for a lifetime. and our colleague who filed that report joins us now here in the studio good to see you see so it's been a year now since the government. the regime in sudan was tall what's the mood in the country as a whole or people dissolution i think people are really frustrated that they actually can't come out and celebrate this one year anniversary of this very historic day like most of the countries around the world sudan now is under a partial lockdown but i think it's more frustration than disillusionment i think

what was striking back then in sudan was that people from the getgo were saying we know that this is going to be a long way and sudan has had the experience of having the arab spring 10 years before and they've seen just how badly this can go so i mean i was struck by how realistic people were and certainly most of the people that i've spoken to have you know talk about april 11th as one of the best days of their lives so then there's no in what's supposed to be a 3 year transition period to bring free elections how's that going i mean it's a mixed bag i mean when you look at some of the changes that sudan has gone through in the past year some of them have been really extraordinary for example some of the archaic limitations on women that were lifted almost overnight the idea that there's press freedom now in the country whether the media landscape there is developed or not it's a different question but the fact that you can say whatever you want and you are not going to be you know persecuted as you would have under bashir but the transition also you know sudan is being run under this very unique combination between civilians and the military and over the past year we've seen moments where

the military has overstepped its bounds and bringing back some of the fears that the protesters have is that bashir might be gone but his pro knees or his henchmen are still around and still trying to get back into into power and there are also some kind of issues that the transitional government said that they want to take care of that they have not finished yet for example the internal peace negotiations were supposed to be done a couple of months ago they're still ongoing and there's no sign of them being finished so far so definitely still a long way ahead in your report you also touched on the topic of crimes being. emitted against the protester. is justice being done. sadly not i mean as the prime minister said in the report there is this committee that was formed but this committee has more than once delayed the publication of its report especially about the violence being used against protesters and this is creating quite a bit of frustration among the protesters because this committee is not the only

one investigating these crimes you had an investigative piece of investigative journalism that have you know a lot of evidence pointing to authorities being involved in this and a lot of n.g.o.s that have published you know reports of the sort so it's creating a lot of question marks for the protesters why hasn't this happened yet and it's kind of very important for them you know i've met people that had seen friends die in front of their eyes for them to be to process this and to work through it they need this kind of justice and unfortunately up until now it has not been served great talking to a reporter. for now to paris and a story not linked to the coronavirus a year ago today the cathedral of notre dame was badly damaged by fire thought to have been started by an electrical short circuit restoration work is months behind schedule delayed by toxic let winter storms and now of course pandemic as we wait for the work to be completed 2 films about theater all have been released one shot

for the disaster the other afterwards and hand by virtual reality. cathedral the symbol of paris in flames the images from april 29 teams satins the. filmmakers cloues wishfully and vic to argue long had been shooting a documentary on the world famous landmark just weeks before the fire. it almost hit the day after the fire realized that our images are extremely great value them we captured a moment to history that we'll be able to pass on to the public whether european american asian or parisian everyone who ever visited has a special memory of not what. they combined footage from before the inferno with nearly shot material to make a 2nd documentary titled rebuilding. the

images of the current cathedrals interior of the only ones of thick kind. else's movies images are you doing special because they were shot from virtual reality that is in 360 degrees with a very high resolution. that produces one image for the left eye and one for the right which gives you the illusion of depth as if you were actually there. with a v. on headset people can immerse themselves in the world of notre dame for 16 minutes . motion sensors allow them to move through and explore the structure independently . such an experience in actual reality is no longer possible not tradition is now closed to the public. or tourist landmark that each year drew millions of visitors of any faith or even without one this is a monument of importance to the history of france and it was important to us to put

that across in our film. the makers of rebuilding not acquired a very rare permits to film inside the damaged cathedral but in some spots only one member of the team was allowed the camera robot crumbling walls and high lead contamination posed to greater hazard to people in these areas director chloe is delighted that she managed to be in the right place at the right time with the right technology. correspondent lisa lewis is in paris for she has the latest on the reconstruction of notre dame. one year on from when a fire destroyed not a damn cathedral threw for its fire and severely damaged its apple walls the construction site behind me has ground to i hold you to the coronavirus knocked out the about 80 artisans working there managed to almost finish securing the building

before they're hard to stop once they can pick up again they will have to assess the damage then choose the companies providing the material needed for reconstruction in public tenders and only then can the actual reconstruction works begin the not that i'm a 30 s. insist they will finish reconstructing the cathedral in 2024 but it looks like it's at least going to go down to the wire. in other news turkey has started releasing prisoners across the country in a move aimed at reducing overcrowding and containing the spread of covert 19 the country's parliament passed a bill tuesday for the early release of 90000 inmates rights groups have criticized the bill for excluding government critics and journalists. the owner of the busiest german airports in frankfurt fraport says passenger volume has dropped by more than 60 percent in the 1st quarter of the current coronavirus pandemic has all but ended

personal travel with more recent daily numbers down 95 percent similar reports coming in from heathrow with drop of 90 percent vienna were passenger numbers are down 99 percent. u.s. treasury department will spend $25000000000.00 to support major passenger airlines in the u.s. and help them whether the economic impact of the credit on travel demand the country's largest airlines including american united delta and southwest will receive most of the money as grants and some as loans. and 99 year old war veteran has raised the equivalent of around 7000000 euros for britain's national health service captain toll more aims to complete 100 laps of his garden by thursday his original target was just over 1000 euros he's now bowed to keep going.

and finally breweries in belgium has started offering a delivery service for people who miss being able to buy a pint in their local restaurant or bar drinkers say it's a way to support local businesses while enjoying their favorite brew take a look. this isn't an urgent medical delivery for a person in quarantine but it could cheer up someone bored at home to keep their business and life half a dozen microbreweries in the balance and competent brussels are encouraging their fans to buy online charging around 50 euros for a case of $24.00 bought it's by sickly delivery included i think it's very helpful to have any varies. not only because we consume liberal drugs but because all the combine this can sell the products by themselves and have some profit now. someone donkey who runs the instant millings brewery say's they used to mainly sell

their beer to bars and restaurants. but those here are not too close almost a month ago. in one day we lost 95 percent of our clients so this was a really huge hits to us because we're in direct 2nd line after the bars in this. part us are so high now that some of the monkey and his colleagues decided to start growing again which they had stopped since the beginning of the lockdown at least there's no something to be cheerful about when you're stuck and quarantine. in sports the biggest cycling event of the year the tour de france has been delayed due to the country's ongoing public health measures against carette of iris this year's come competition was supposed to begin in late june but organizers were forced to reschedule after france extended a ban on public events until mid july reigning champion

a gone by now is now due to get his title defense under way on the 29th of august in the riviera city. you're watching news from berlin remember you can get the latest. headlines all tarted up here for our website that stevia dot com you can follow us on twitter instagram to handle their news i'm terry martin i want twitter at tim news stream thanks for watching.

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