no. longer. than respect. this is deja vu news far from berlin a stunning victory for the l g b t community in the u.s. the supreme court rules that a landmark civil rights law does protect gay and transgender workers from discrimination get reactions from washington. also coming up funding the race for a covert 1000 back scene the german government buys

a 23 percent stake in german biotech firm back the same company the u.s. government reportedly tried to acquire back in march and. jan is a reporter in 1986 and i have worked in so many countries around the world i didn't share that and threaten but never this kind of death by a 1000. award winning journalist maria ressa vows to appeal her conviction of cyber libel by a court in the philippines she says the ruling as an attack on press freedom meant to silence critics of president park we go to church. i'm not going to have you with us we start in the u.s. with a big victory for the community the country's supreme court has ruled that it's a legal to fire workers for their sexual orientation or. under identity the courts

of the nation's landmark 1964 civil rights act which bars workplace discrimination based on sex also protects gay and transgender people the vote was 6 to 3 with 2 of the court's conservative justices joining with the court's 4 liberals and the decision. let's get the latest with g.w.s. all of our salat in washington d.c. hi all over put this in the context for us how significant is this ruling. was suing this is not the 1st time the u.s. supreme court ruled in favor of the l g b t community but they did so a couple times a last years and decades even but something is different now this time around under president trump the supreme court became more conservative there's a total of 9 judges appointed including the the chief justice and 5 of them are now conservative so there is a fair conservative major already majority in the supreme court with very new judge

their very contested figure break cover na who was appointed in spite of the geishas made against him of sexual assault democrats at the time followed fuselier avoiding him being appointed to the supreme court and he replaced a liberal judge anthony kennedy who was a very prominent voice for gay rides on all 4 also of the ruling that allowed same sex marriage for the 1st time in the united states so one would assume that the supreme court now is by far more conservative than it used to be and in spite of that this conservative court now ruled in favor of the community taking sides also with the liberals with the democrats even and that ruling that ruling was even written by one of the trump appointees just as gore such so that is certainly not the policy line of the trump administration we're seeing here today and that ruling which very recently removed transgender health insurance protection of the obama era so it's fair to say that the outcome here the ruling today comes as quite

a surprise to me and what's the reaction been there. well because of the conservative leaning judges in the supreme court the l g b t community did not expect this outcome here today so we can consider it as a landmark ruling don't forget until today it was possible for an american employer to fire their employee use just because of the sexual orientation or the gender status of their employees. of course now the community is celebrating the ruling also the democrats the speaker of the house nancy pelosi calling this a victory for democracy and fundamental values of equality and justice for all we haven't heard much from the republicans as of now with president present president trump remaining silent on the issue as of now. all over south reporting from washington thank you. the german government plans to take

a 23 percent stake in the private biotech company cure back which is working on a cover 1000 back seen that stake will cost 300000000 euros karabakh is based in germany and is about to begin clinical trials for a coronavirus vaccine later this month here's a closer look at the company that's attracting both scientific and political interests. q evacuate one of the big hopes when it comes to developing a vaccine against the corona virus its method is particularly promising now the german government has taken a 20 percent stake in the company giving it a 300000000 euro boost. this investment is a way of providing back with security so that it can continue to work with commitment towards producing a vaccine. cure back hit the headlines this year when the us government allegedly attempted to entice the

company over to america monday's move is therefore also about sending a clear message about the government's industrial policy. we want high tech businesses companies which serves people to continue to develop their products in germany and europe and we want to ensure such companies have the conditions they need here. is such a company. june will see the 1st clinical trials with healthy volunteers there are more than $120.00 vaccine projects currently underway worldwide and no one knows when and if a vaccine will be found. any from data of you business is looking into the story for us i shall say why is the german government making this investment well there are couple of different reasons why germany wants to do this the 1st is that there is really a global race right now to find

a vaccine. and we've seen just the devastating public health and also economic damage this has done and what it what we know is that this will not go away this fear will not go away until there is really a vaccine in place so there is a lot of pressure from from the economics and from the public health side to find a vaccine but it also does really fit with germany's new strategy that it's sort of put in place since the coronavirus outbreak started to really make sure that it's investing in its own homegrown and just say that this will really ensure that they have a strong biotech and strong pharmaceutical pipeline because in the past a lot of a lot of german company a lot of german pharmaceuticals were coming from asia and this really started a lot of fears about sort of relying on other countries so it does fit with this broader strategy as well and vaccines vaccine development has become pretty political hasn't it certainly has this really as the piece mentioned became a really hot political issue in march whenever the u.s.

allegedly made a. bid for this german company that we're now getting the german investment this really created a lot of concerns because there's an idea that what the u.s. is trying to do was really secure this vaccine for itself and there is clearly going to be a divergence between the countries that have the money to pay millions of euros billions of years to secure these vaccines in the in the countries that won't so this would really sort of strengthen these divides between the richer countries countries that can make big deals for vaccines and the poor countries that can't so this did sort of create this question of who really should be getting the vaccines and how democratic that process can be the european union did create what it's called an inclusive alliance to try and broaden the efforts to get these vaccines out but it also does come with this backdrop of just increasing tensions between the u.s. and europe and china and all of these countries over nationalism and protectionism

. so in addition to really trying to secure national pharmaceutical companies we're also seeing a lot of countries including germany including the u.s. taking a lot of effort to. to secure companies like google of tons and really in acting more barriers to foreign investment to try and make sure that these companies that have lost so much value don't get scooped up by a foreign investor so it's just generally part of this broader backlash to globalization and on national policy just very quickly how close this curve back actually to developing a vaccine that's ready for market will cure max as it hopes to get this vaccine out by the end of the year we don't know if that's actually going to going to happen most vaccines do fail the reason why karabakh is really getting a lot of attention is they have they've had pretty successful rates and animals they're just starting human trials now and they have been beat to the market by a lot of other companies so we don't really know yet but it could be in the coming months shall see dylan for us thank you very much let's check in on some other

stories now british prime minister boris johnson says he is hopeful of hammering out of post brags that trade deal with the e.u. by the end of next month that follows a video conference he held with you commission president was the last on the line and other european leaders both sides say new momentum is needed to break a deadlock in negotiations. in a russian court has sentenced former u.s. marine paul wieland to 16 years in prison after finding him guilty of espionage he was accused of having obtained classified state information the u.s. says it is outraged by whelan's conviction and is calling for his immediate release . a court in the philippines has convicted a prominent journalist of cyber libel maria ressa now faces up to 6 years in prison she's vowing to appeal the verdict watchdogs have called the case a serious erosion of press freedom under president. award

winning journalist maria ressa arriving in court in manila to learn her fate. the verdict guilty of cyber libel 482012 article her website rappler published linking a businessman to human trafficking and drug smuggling. ressa once worked for c.n.n. and holds dual u.s. philippine citizenship she says she's been devastated by the verdict which she sees as a part of a government campaign against her and her publication. next year will be my 35th year as a journalist i began as a reporter in $1086.00 and i have worked in so many countries around the world i've been shot at and threatened but never this kind of death by a 1000 cuts the case was closely watched as a test of press freedom under populist president would require. the court heard the libel complaint even though the article in question was published 4 months before the cybercrime law was enacted russia and rappler are not the only prominent

philippine media to face problems with the authorities last month one of the country's leading broadcasters was shut down rights groups when the country is entering dangerous territory it is indeed a very. this country. is reading this sends a message to every journalist. who wants. or you're going to be next russet now faces a prison term of up to 6 years in spite of the verdict she vows not to be silenced . fresca is now on bail pending her appeal we spoke with her earlier today to get her reaction to the verdict it was. if you look at it in the context of criminal charges i had. just 3. and a slew of attacks against journalists. that has intensified with the shutdown of

the largest broadcaster just last month. i suppose i walked in feeling in knowing that there could be a worst case scenario that would is even worse than this one and so what i listen to what i just i tried hard not to get angry and then to figure out how do we continue doing our jobs better. this is a unique moment in history and we're seeing a rise authoritarian populist style leaders actions will almost end you're seeing the attacks on well i don't think i've lived and this is my 34th year i'm going to be a i'm an old journalist you know and and i've never seen anything like this i've worked in war zones i crumble on for weeks but this is is a different time period and i feel like in my country at least we're standing on the precipice and we must do all we spent protect press freedom which protects our

democracy we also spoke to christiane now the head of reporters without borders in germany and asked him whether he saw the 1st act as an attempt by the philippines government to erode the press freedom in the country. especially as a pretty peeved dropped in a moment prince lehman next and just recently for example over 80 s. c.n.n. which is a major at 50 process to last its franchise and b. as well saw the president taps it himself very often like credit trump in the u.s. actually identified journalists and in the east and she case they actually mary r.s.x. as his press know and indeed at that way we can only understand today's ruling as it groovy actually which has been ordered by president to chat. for more coverage of this story and to watch the full interview with maria ressa visit our website www dot com one more item before we go where the private space technology company space x.

is steadily expanding its network of satellites known as star link of the satellite system will eventually provide space based internet connectivity around the world on saturday the company launched a rocket from florida's cape canaveral carrying almost 60 of its satellites into orbit the company now has over 500 such internet satellites in orbit and eventually plans to have 12000 surface. thank you for watching jenny. combating the corona pandemic. where does research stand. what are scientists learning. background information and news. hour corona. that 19 special and next on.