Updated: 2pm
Washington DC, US
Reuters
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the COVID-19 pandemic shows the need to overhaul the World Health Organization, warning that Washington may never restore WHO funding and could even work to set up an alternative to the UN body instead.
As Pompeo launched fresh attacks on the WHO, Democrats in the US House of Representatives accused the Trump administration of trying to “scapegoat” the institution to distract from its own handling of the coronavirus outbreak.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at a press briefing at the State Department in Washington, US, on 22nd April. PICTURE: Nicholas Kamm/Pool via Reuters/File Photo
In a letter to President Donald Trump, they called for the immediate restoration of US funding, which Trump suspended last week after accusing the WHO of being “China-centric” and of promoting China’s “disinformation” about the outbreak.
Pompeo told Fox News late on Wednesday there needed to be “a structural fix of the WHO” to correct its “shortcomings.”
Asked if he was urging a change in leadership of the WHO, Pompeo replied: “Even more than that, it may be the case that the United States can never return to underwriting, having US taxpayer dollars go to the WHO.”
In a radio show interview on Thursday, Pompeo was asked if he saw a time when the role of the WHO might be supplanted by another organization. “We’re going to take a look at exactly that issue,” he replied.
“If the institution works and functions, the United States will always lead and be part of it. When it’s not delivering, when in fact it’s failing to get the outcomes that are desired, we’re going to work with partners around the world to deliver a structure, a form, a governance model, that will actually deliver on the intended purposes.”
The WHO has denied the Trump administration’s charges and China insists it has been transparent and open.
The United States has been the biggest overall donor to the WHO, contributing over $US400 million in 2019, roughly 15 per cent of its budget. Senior US officials last week told Reuters Washington could redirect these funds to other aid groups.
On Wednesday, Pompeo said the United States “strongly believed” Beijing had failed to report the outbreak in a timely manner, in breach of WHO rules. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom did not use his ability “to go public” when a member state failed to follow those rules, Pompeo added.
The acting head of the US Agency for International Development said on Wednesday the United States would assess if the WHO was being run properly and look for alternative partners outside the body.
Any threat to definitively end US funding of the global body would likely hinge on Trump succeeding in his bid for re-election in the November presidential vote against the presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
The US Congress controls federal spending, and could pass legislation to guarantee funding for the WHO. However, to become law it would need to garner enough support, including from Trump’s Republicans, not just to pass but to override a likely veto.
According to a Reuters tally, the coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 180,000 people worldwide, including nearly 48,000 in the United States, making it the worst-hit country by official statistics.
CORONAVIRUS LATEST
Reported cases of the coronavirus have crossed 2.64 million globally and 184,910 people have died, according to a Reuters tally as of 1400 GMT on Thursday.
AMERICAS
• The US House of Representatives returned to Washington on Thursday to pass a $US484 billion coronavirus relief bill, funding small businesses and hospitals.
• Former Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren’s oldest brother, Donald Reed Herring, died on Tuesday night after contracting the novel coronavirus.
• Gilead Sciences Inc’s experimental coronavirus drug failed its first randomised clinical trial, the Financial Times reported, but the drugmaker said the results from the study in China were inconclusive as it was terminated early.
• Peru’s reported coronavirus cases rapidly increased this week and topped 20,000 on Thursday, doubling in nine days, as President Martin Vizcarra extended a national quarantine in the world’s number two copper producer.
• Canada pledged new money to develop and eventually mass-produce vaccines in its fight against the coronavirus.
EUROPE
• France has expanded its list of drugs that face export restrictions through the coronavirus crisis despite repeated calls from the European Union to lift curbs that could cause shortages in other countries, documents show.
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel signalled she was open to offering major financial support for a coronavirus recovery package worth as much as €2 trillion, but wanted to see how it would be used before committing.
• Spain’s daily increase in fatalities further steadied at around two per cent on Thursday, as the government apologised for confusion over lockdown rules for children.
• Greece extended its general lockdown by a week to 4th May, saying any relaxation would be staggered over May and June.
• Two British doctors who have been exposed to COVID-19 patients have launched a legal challenge against the government over what they say is a lack of protective kits and unclear guidance on when and how it should be used.
ASIA-PACIFIC
• South Asia’s infections have crossed 37,000, with more than half in India, complicating the task of governments looking to ease lockdowns.
• Around $US1 trillion of debt owed by developing countries would be cancelled under a global deal proposed by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
• Indonesia will temporarily ban domestic air and sea travel starting Friday, barring a few exceptions.
• Malaysia will extend travel and other curbs by two weeks to 12th May, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said, but more sectors may be allowed to resume operations.
• Spooked by a sharp increase in cases in the navy, Taiwan is debating whether to consider a broad lockdown.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
• African nations that lack ventilators will receive some from a donation of 300 supplied by the Jack Ma Foundation.
• The governors of Nigeria’s 36 states agreed to ban interstate movement for two weeks.
• Botswana’s President and lawmakers were released from two weeks in quarantine after testing negative.
• Egypt will keep a night-time curfew for the holy Muslim month of Ramadan to combat the coronavirus spread but make it one hour shorter.
ECONOMIC FALLOUT
• World stock markets climbed as investors weighed a rebound in oil prices and prospects for further government stimulus against stark economic data showing the toll of the pandemic.
• Global economic activity all but ground to a halt this month as government-imposed lockdowns took a particularly heavy toll on the world’s service industry, surveys showed.
• A record 26 million Americans likely sought unemployment benefits over the last five weeks, meaning all the jobs created during the longest employment boom in US history were wiped out in about a month.
• Japan offered its bleakest assessment of the economy in over a decade as the pandemic threatens to tip the world’s third-largest economy into a deep recession.
• South Korea’s ruling party and the government agreed to provide cash handouts to every household, not just to families below the top 30 percentile of income as previously announced.
• Italy will target a budget deficit of around 10 per cent of national output in 2020, and the gap will remain above three per cent in 2021, as it readies a new stimulus package to soften the economic hit from the virus.
• German consumer morale was driven to a record low heading into May, a survey showed, with the pandemic having a far more severe impact on household spending intentions than forecasters had estimated.
– Compiled by MILLA NISSI and DEVIKA SYAMNATH
