Angela merkel drops her longstanding resistance to the e. U. Raising the joint crisis funding. Im Claire Richardson welcome to the show the u. S. Biotech firm moderna is reporting promising results from the 1st clinical tests of an experimental vaccine against the coronavirus early results from the trial showed that participants develop antibodies a similar to those in people who have recovered from cove at 19 the u. S. Government has invested half a 1000000000. 00 in the research meanwhile President Donald Trump said hes taking the antimalaria drug hydroxy chloroquine trump has repeatedly touted the drug as a treatment for cofa 19 despite medical warnings well lets jump right in. Bring in dr peter hotez a vaccine ologists at the Baylor College of medicine in houston dr hotez stock markets are up sharply on the news that a 1st Clinical Trial for the vaccine has been successful but how optimistic should we be at this stage in the testing. Well its still pretty early on in the testing there we only are only seeing information about 8 individuals and remember this is through a press release from the company theres thats not even published data so so we dont actually have any doubt of the look at all we have is the opinion of the company so its not a lot to go on what theyre saying is that the 8 individuals handled the vaccine pretty well there were no immediate serious reactions one individual had some severe redness at the side of injection and some of the ones with the really highest dose may have had them or more so what we call systemic problems of. A sudden and and and malays and that sort of thing but overall they handled it pretty well so thats good news and they also report that they developed antibodies which we would expect and they also developed what are called neutralizing antibodies which of the type of antibody need to protect against the virus the big question that we really havent seen is the amount of neutralizing antibodies because we know from Laboratory Animal experiments including ours for the vaccine were developing you need a lot of that neutralizing antibody and all we know is theyre saying its roughly equivalent to the amount thats found in patients who are unfit previously infected with the virus and terms of neutralizing antibody and theres a report coming out from the week before from my colleagues at the Rockefeller University in new york saying thats not a lot of neutralizing antibodies so its a little bit of a confusing muddled message and itll sort out once we see the published out of but for right now the vaccine looks like its well tolerated whether or not its going to work we are really know until we do those large phase 3 Clinical Trials which will get underway in the summer in the fall of pharmaceuticals have been made. News elsewhere as well us president onil trump claimed earlier today that he is taking the antimalaria drug hydroxy chloroquine listen to this but i get a lot of tremendously positive news on the hydroxy and i say hey you know the expression ive used what do you have to lose ok what do you have to lose your bet if i havent taken for about a week for about a week and a half every day at some point every day i take a pill every day. At some point ill stop what id like to do is id like to have the cure and or the vaccine and that will happen i think 1st of. All theres currently no evidence that hydro hydroxy clark plan is effective in treating cofa 19 and it could be serious a risk associated what would you say it to trump or others who might be considering taking a strike. At this point ive not seen any compelling data supports that it does anything you know we are at this stage about a decade ago for influenza it worked in a test tube and there was a big study showing that it did not prevent you from getting influenza and it looks like its probably going to be the same for kovan 1000. 00 so i would say the risk of Heart Disease and arrhythmias and others out weigh the end need potential benefits so i think there are Better Things we could do if hes seriously concerned about earth as doctors are concerned about him being exposed to kovan 1000 or if he has been exposed we have convalescing the antibodies plasma that we know has a much better record both in service one and were doing clinical studies now for this new ones are as to that would be a far better option for dr pear hotez thank you so much for that analysis. Thank you the World Health Organization has promised to conduct an independent review into how it handled the response to the corona virus pandemic the w. H. O. Received Widespread International backing for the investigation including from china during the World Health Assembly held for the 1st time ever by Video Conference most World Leaders a stressed the need for International Cooperation to fight covert nineteens a u. S. President has suspended u. S. Funding for the w. H. O. Accusing the health of body of failing to hold china to account covert 19 has tragically taken hundreds of thousands of lives impacted millions of people and a deep damage to the World Economy we must be frank about one of the primary reasons this outbreak spun out of control there was a failure by this organization to obtain the information that the world needed and that failure cost many lives in an apparent attempt to conceal this outbreak at least one member state made a mockery of their transparency obligations with tremendous cost for the entire world we saw that w. 2 failed at its core mission of information sharing and transparency when Member States do not act in good faith this cannot ever happen again. Well germany and friends have announced a half trillion euro plan to help europe weather the worst crisis in decades the proposal calls for a rescue fund to boost sectors of the economy hardest hit by the pandemic and in a 1st to german chancellor Angela Merkel and at her long standing resistance to the e. U. Raising joint debt to Fund Relief Efforts its Wishful Thinking to hope europes economies could bounce back as easily as these predictions after months under lockdown even before the e. U. Commission presents its aid package berlin and paris are rushing through a joint initiative for economic recovery in a bid to put this crippling things behind them. In a joint News Conference with the french president chancellor Angela Merkel stressed the coronavirus pandemic is in danger in european unity. Most thats why the fund has to help ensure that all countries in europe can react appropriately but. This requires an extraordinary one off effort which france and germany are ready to undertake provided that if this is the result of bilateral work in cooperation with our partners im convinced that this plan provides the groundwork to revive our lives our economies and our societies. To offset the drastic decline in production transport and tourism across europe this Development Fund will get an injection of 500000000000 euros e. U. Budget funds will be made available to the hardest hit regions and sectors the overall plan is designed to strengthen the e. U. s future viability of the in these resources will of course if this purpose will invest in digitalization and the green deal to cope with the climate catastrophe this will inspire a new dynamic for the future in the field of health we will aim for cooperation to apply all we flew on from the crisis to get them by their design tight that sounds like support for the e. U. Commission whose economic Recovery Plan is being drafted the commissions president is expected to present it next week so more money potentially available but as you know is chief Political EditorMikhail Kushner tells us it wont be a handout. Well they want to put those 500000000000 euros extra on the table but that comes with some terms attached ive got the paper here they want to see europe a much stronger from this crisis now and arguably everybody does want to see their own country emerge stronger but also the whole question of whether that could lead to more responsibility shifting towards brussels is a debate they want to have notably the whole euro bond debate is off the table certainly that particular what many in france have been on the opposite end of that debate for a long time now they demonstrate unity and the willingness particularly of germany to put more money on the table because after all 27 percent of everything thats decided upon within the e. U. Budget would be. Lets take a look at some other stories making news around the world members of the Extremist Group boko haram have killed at least 20 people in a village in northeastern nigeria eyewitnesses said the islamist stormed the village and began shooting just as people were preparing to break their ramadan fast at sundown boko haram has now been waging its insurgent insurgency for more than a decade. Lets go to cairo now where the building of a multilingual highway is raising eyebrows for some residents in the egyptian capital the project is far too close for comfort going beyond the usual annoyances of construction work outside your window. Its a construction project that has baffled the twitter verse and the residents living in this apartment block the overpass is meant to connect the northern and southern parts of cairo skis a district but for people who live here it simply bypasses common sense. And its dangerous enough that now the sunlight but after they completed my apartment will turn to something that resembles a grave or a warehouse. The 1st 2nd and 3rd floors will never ever see sunlight again. And he and his neighbors say the project disregards their privacy and safety it brings traffic up close and personal with some residents being able to reach out and touch the overpass from their balconies but thats not all. The myth that. We were on many occasions to find burglars trying to break into some of these apartments with this and it is the nations transportation minister believes the bridge is vital to accommodate an estimated 750000 cars daily and says it will link to a train station all fine and good says given youssef who why couldnt cairo avoid losing the road through an already existing building she wonders for again but we have a letter apartment when it was still expensive 2 days ago the minister of transportation says those 10 or 20 apartments dont matter you know its important how were not living in a random place you cant speak to us like this at the can with 3 at the marina. Still construction for the road not yet traveled is a go the Ministry Says theres no other alternative but the agency will offer compensation to those who want to move. Sports now and the quiet stands and stunted goal celebrations seen in going to sleep the matches in recent days may be strange and unfamiliar but theres nothing new about the goal scoring talent of leverkusen young star its his court too as leverkusen return to action on monday night with a 41 victory away from home against strugglers bad brennan. The closing act of the reopening weekend underneath the visa study on lives theres much about the in the strange times like the sight of teams emerging separately from the tunnel that makes the match day feel like a Training Exercise and it was with Training Ground ease that labor queues in breeze through brains defense to net the opener in the 28th minute mussa d. R. V. Charge unchallenged to the touchline and picked out an unmarked car i havent seen who put the guests in front. Braman were back level just 2 minutes later when leon gets imports corner was turned home by a crafty theodore gave us a lesson back but just 3 minutes after that leave accuses lead had been restored yet another free header for one decade car i havent seen whose 2 goals gave his side an advantage that they carried into half time. They drew further in front on the hour mark when mitchell visor profited from some serious confusion in the brain and back line to make it 31. And in the 78th minute caring demi a guy was able to put the result beyond doubt after a small through ball from carrying ben a robbery and an early dive from keeper pavlik. Both teams pick up where they left off before the break a dream restock for later cruising and a nightmare one for him back to break. This is news remember you can keep up to date with all the latest news on our website at www dot com and you can follow us on twitter and instagram as well im Claire Richardson in berlin and thanks for watching. Language courses. Video. Anytime anywhere. Ws