Category World News

The US’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) has been officially announced by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The US has not a member of the WHO since it joined as a founding member in 1948, despite US President Donald Trump having stated his intention to do so in 2020 during his first term in office.

The WHO’s “failures during the COVID-19 pandemic” were primarily to blame for the withdrawal, according to Rubio and Kennedy, a vaccine sceptic.

Rubio and Kennedy stated that US support for the WHO would only be used to effectuate our withdrawal and protect the health and safety of the American people.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s chief executive, stated earlier this month that the organization had made cuts to address the funding gaps brought on by the US withdrawal.

According to Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for the UN, “for all intents and purposes,” the US is “no longer participating in the World Health Organization,” but “some legal details will likely have to be worked out.”

“We want to see every country be a full participant in the work of the World Health Organization,” Dujarric said.

He said, “Health issues are present if there is an issue that is clearly, that knows no borders, that doesn’t respect territorial integrity,” so to speak.

“Viruses, non-communicable diseases, and all of these issues need and should be resolved through international cooperation. The best place to do it, he continued.

Withdrawal “makes us all more vulnerable and reckless”

President Trump announced that he planned to leave the United States from the Geneva-based WHO on January 20, 2025, the first day his second term in office officially began. He has received criticism for his response to COVID-19, including from his own top health officials. The US did not, however, implement the withdrawal until this week due to a provisional clause.

Steven Solomon, the WHO’s head of legal affairs, stated earlier this month to reporters that the organization’s founders did not include a withdrawal clause because they believed it to be a “truly universal organization that would make the world safer.”

Solomon claimed that the US had given two requirements: giving one year’s notice and meeting its “financial obligations… in full for the current fiscal year,” and also that the US was “in arrears on its payments” for 2024 and 2025.

Public health advocate Lucky Tran responded to the US’s withdrawal by saying that “the WHO has played a huge role in bringing countries together to reduce death and disease at an unprecedented scale.”

“We can only improve it by continuing to participate, but it is by no means perfect. We are all more vulnerable because of withdrawal, Tran continued.

Prior to the US withdrawal, the WHO, which includes all UN members but Liechtenstein, which has a population under 50 000, frequently coordinates health issues that transcend international borders.

An Academy Award has been awarded to a haunting docudrama about Israel’s killing of Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, 5, during its genocidal conflict in Gaza.

French-Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s film The Voice of Hind Rajab was nominated for the Oscars for Best International Feature on Thursday.

The movie combines dramatic re-enactments with recordings of actual emergency calls to tell the true story of Hind, who was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza City in 2024.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society’s rescuers tried to comfort her as she lay stranded in a bullet-ridden car with the bodies of her aunt, uncle, and three cousins, all of whom had been killed by Israeli fire, using harrowing audio from Hind Rajab’s call to the hospital.

The two ambulance drivers who attempted to save the girl also died at the scene.

Following her death, a recording of the phone call was widely shared on social media, sparking a new outcry from around the world over Israel’s assaults on civilians.

Since the start of the war, according to Gaza’s health ministry, at least 71 Palestinians have been killed and 171 are wounded in Israeli attacks, many of which are children.

More than 100 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza, according to UNICEF, the organization’s child protection agency, even since the ceasefire’s start in October of last year.

“Echo her voice.”

According to The Associated Press news agency, filmmaker Ben Hania claimed her goal with the movie was to spread Hind Rajab’s voice around the world.

Because this young girl’s voice wasn’t heard when it was needed, she said, “my main obsession or idea was to make her voice echo all over the world” when I started making this movie.

The fact that we are nominated today shines a spotlight on Hind Rajab’s voice.

She expressed gratitude to the academy members who had supported her film for acknowledging the fact that “filmmaking is not always an escape.”

It can be confrontational, she says. It might be something that we shouldn’t ignore, such as the truth or the state of the affairs.

No evidence of a firefighting exchange

The Rajab family’s death was the result of an encounter between Israeli troops and armed Palestinian fighters, according to the Israeli government at the time.

However, a subsequent investigation by the London-based research firm Forensic Architecture found no evidence of any kind of fire exchange and only the presence of several Israeli Merkava tanks close to the Rajab family’s car.

Colonel Beni Aharon of Israel’s 401 Armoured Brigade was the overall lead officer in the tanks that were present at the time of the family’s death.

The Hind Rajab Foundation, which uses social media footage that Israeli soldiers captured while conducting operations in Gaza as evidence for war crimes prosecutions, has already filed a criminal complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC).

third-time nominee

Ben Hania’s or her movie has received another industry award for the Oscar nomination.

The director’s 2020 movie, The Man Who Sold His Skin, and her 2023 documentary, Four Daughters, both received Academy Award nominations twice.

The Voice of Hind Rajab received a 23-minute standing ovation at its premiere at the Venice International Film Festival in September.

At around 9:30 am on Thursday (22:30 GMT on Wednesday), a heavy rainstorm struck Mount Maunganui on the island’s east coast, causing the landslide, which caused soil and rubble to fall onto a campsite full of families in Tauranga.

Officials warned on Friday that the site’s search for missing people could take several days due to the site’s unstable conditions.

Despite the urgency of the operation, police commissioner Richard Chambers told the New Zealand Herald that safety concerns required teams to move slowly.

“We appreciate that everyone is anxious and awaiting some answers, but we also have to be very cautious,” said Chambers.

Crews meticulously removed the debris and checked it piece by piece, according to emergency services, who had deployed significant resources there.

According to David Guard, a fire and emergency official, “We have 25 people working with contractors, their diggers, and police dogs, as well as police operations to make sure every inch of soil is worked through.”

As police continued to look into the possible locations of others with connections to the site, a 15-year-old was among the people still unaccounted for, according to authorities.

Officers were attempting to contact three more people, according to police commander Tim Anderson, despite initial reports that they were not camping at the time the landslide struck.

Since first responders first heard voices coming from beneath the debris on Thursday, he continued, adding that no further signs of life had been found.

On Friday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon met with the victims’ families and traveled to the site. He said, “They are grieving incredibly hard, and I know that New Zealand grieves with them.”

Once the extent of the damage was determined, Luxon claimed, government funding would be provided.

In another area, two people were killed when a landslide occurred in Papamoa, a nearby suburb of the city. Chinese Ambassador Wang Xiaolong claimed in a post on X on Friday that one of the dead was a Chinese national.

Some of the hardest-hit areas saw the most severe road closures, resulting in landfall for several towns.

Officials from the Tairawhiti district’s civil defense warned people bringing emergency supplies of food and water across landslides because this could cause rock and soil to move even further.

United States President Donald Trump has withdrawn an ‍invitation for Canada ‍to join his Board of Peace initiative aimed at resolving global conflicts, in what appeared to be a retaliatory move following Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech at the World Economic Forum.

“Please ⁠let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation ​to you regarding Canada’s joining, what will be, the most prestigious Board of ‍Leaders ever assembled, at any time,” Trump wrote on Thursday in a Truth Social post, addressing Carney directly.

In his speech to world leaders in Davos, Switzerland, Carney openly decried powerful nations using economic integration as weapons and tariffs as leverage, and urged nations to accept the end of a rules-based global order, receiving a rare standing ovation.

Trump recently threatened a trade war against European countries which oppose his bid to acquire Greenland, an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.

‘Middle powers’

Carney added that Canada, which recently signed a trade deal with China, can show how “middle powers” might act together to avoid being victimised by US hegemony.

Trump retorted that Canada “lives because of the United States”, and told ​listeners in Davos that Carney should be grateful for US generosity.

“Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements,” he added, calling Carney by his first name.

The withdrawal of Canada’s invitation came hours after Trump officially launched the board in Davos. Last week, Carney’s office ‍said he had ⁠been invited to serve on the board and planned to accept.

While it was not immediately clear how many countries have signed on, member nations are known to include Argentina, Bahrain, Morocco, Pakistan and Turkiye. Other US allies, such as the United Kingdom, ‍France and Italy, have indicated they will not join for now.

The US president insisted “everyone wants to be a part” of the body, despite many US allies opting not to participate, and said nearly 30 members had already joined. He said some leaders told him they want to join but first require approval from their parliaments, specifically naming Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Polish President Karol Nawrocki.

Permanent members must help fund the board with a payment of $1bn each, according to Trump.

“Once this board is completely ‌formed, we can do pretty much whatever we want to ⁠do,” Trump said in Switzerland on Thursday. “And we’ll do it in conjunction with the United Nations.”

The new peace board was initially envisioned as a small group of world leaders overseeing the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire, with Trump as chairman, but it has morphed into something far more ambitious.