Category World News

After an expert group investigating the virus’ origins reached an unsatisfying conclusion in its final report released on Friday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “all hypotheses must remain on the table” to determine the origin of the virus, also known as SARS-CoV-2.

In order to prevent future pandemics, Tedros urged China and any other nation that has information about COVID-19 to openly disclose it in order to protect the world from future pandemics.

Millions of people died worldwide as a result of the global pandemic, which started in 2020. Countries have implemented lockdowns to combat the spread of the virus. Information from Wuhan, China, as the first cases were discovered in late 2019, is thought to be essential for preventing future pandemies.

A panel of 27 independent international experts called SAGO (World Health Organization Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens) was founded in 2021 by Tedros.

The group’s chair, Marietjie Venter, stated on Friday that the majority of scientific evidence supports the theory that humans and animals ate the new coronavirus.

Despite numerous requests for more in-depth information from the Chinese government, SAGO was unable to obtain the necessary data after more than three years of work.

Therefore, she stated that this hypothesis could not be investigated or excluded, but that it was deemed to be incredibly speculative, based on political beliefs, and not supported by any scientific evidence.

Venter added that there was no proof COVID had been manipulated in a lab and that there had never been any signs of it spreading before December 2019 anywhere outside of China.

“Remains unconclusive.”

A group of WHO experts traveled to Wuhan in 2021 to examine the virus’ origins alongside Chinese counterparts.

Their joint report by the end of March that year determined that the most likely explanation was an intermediate animal that transported bats to humans.

A lab leak was “extremely unlikely,” they claimed at the time.

However, that investigation was criticized for being lenient with the lab-leak theory and for lacking transparency and access.

SAGO was then launched.

According to the SAGO report, “the weight of the available evidence suggests zoonotic [a disease that spreads between animals and humans] spillover… either directly from bats or through an intermediate host.”

The origins of SARS-CoV-2 entering human populations will remain elusive until more scientific evidence is made, Venter said.

Understanding the origins of SARS-CoV-2 and how it sparked a pandemic is necessary to save lives and livelihoods, she added.

Haitian immigrants will no longer be protected under special laws under the US government.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced in a statement on Friday that Haitians would no longer be able to remain in the nation as a result of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation.

TPS allows citizens of nations that are in conflict, a natural disaster, or other extraordinary circumstances to temporarily reside in the US. They are also permitted to travel and work.

The DHS secretary can extend the designation to a period of six, twelve, or 18 months, though it is typically done for a longer period.

Temporary protections like TPS have been withdrawn as part of a larger effort to restrict immigration to the US, however, under President Donald Trump’s administration.

A DHS spokesman said in a statement on Friday that “this decision restores integrity to our immigration system and ensures that Temporary Protective Status is actually temporary.

More than a 10th of the population was killed and 1.5 million people were left homeless in Haiti as a result of a devastating earthquake in 2010, which was the first to grant the TPS designation. Particularly in the wake of recent years of worsening gang violence and political instability, the designation has been regularly extended and expanded.

President Trump has attempted to end TPS for Haitians even as the island nation’s situation has deteriorated since taking office from 2017 to 2021.

More than 5, 600 gang-related fatalities occurred in Haiti last year, and 1.3 million people were internally. This has caused a protracted humanitarian crisis in Haiti. Food, water, and medical supplies are extremely difficult to obtain in the capital, where armed groups currently control 90% of the city.

Haiti is listed as a Level 4 nation, the highest warning level, according to the US Department of State’s travel advisory.

Because the designated area has life-threatening conditions, Level 4 means “do not travel.” Due to “kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and limited health care,” the State Department advises Americans to avoid Haiti.

However, according to the DHS statement, Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, “decided that overall, country conditions have improved to the point where Haitians can return home safely.”

Further, the statement further explains that she concluded that allowing Haitian nationals to temporarily reside in the United States was against the country’s national interest.

TPS is estimated to affect 260 000 Haitians. The statement advises those impacted to either seek refuge in their home country or return.

However, Haitians are not the only population affected by the temporary immigration ban.

The Supreme Court made it possible for the Trump administration to revoke TPS for 350, 000 Venezuelan residents living in the US in early May.

The high court also upheld Trump’s right to revoke the two-year “humanitarian parole” that made it possible for 530, 000 people to remain and work in the US after the high court’s ruling later in the month. Cubans, Haitians, Venezuelans, and Nicaraguans, all of whom are facing political repression in their home countries, were among the affected humanitarian parole recipients.

In a clear display of pressure, US President Donald Trump has stated that the US is immediately haltering trade negotiations with Canada in response to the country’s digital services tax.

Trump referred to the Canadian tax as a “direct and blatant attack on our country” in a post on his Truth Social platform on Friday, saying that “we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately.” Within the next seven days, he added, “We will let Canada know the tariff that they will be paying to conduct business with the United States of America.”

The Digital Services Tax Act was approved by Canada on June 20, 2024, and it became effective on June 28. In accordance with this, Canada will levy a tax on any company that generates more than 20 million dollars ($14.6%) in calendar year from Canadian users.

Businesses have been urging a pause, fearing that it would raise the cost of providing services and wreak havoc with the US government. However, the federal government of Canada has so far rejected the plans and is still working on them. The Canadian Revenue Authority will begin collecting taxes starting on Monday, and they will continue to hold the funds until 2022.

According to Bloomberg News, Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne suggested that the digital tax might be negotiated as part of more extensive, ongoing US-Canada trade discussions last week. A trade deal was anticipated in July after those discussions appeared to be going well. The situation with that is currently uncertain.

The Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada’s vice president of research and strategy, Vina Nadjibulla, said, “This is definitely an escalation from Trump.” “But this tactic has already been used.” She said Canada will need to work in the background to locate an off-ramp without clinging to his demands.

Trump’s negotiations with the European Union include digital tax, according to the statement. As it considers its response, Canada will need to work with the EU and other partners, Nadjibulla continued.

Trump’s declaration, according to Rachel Ziemba, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, was “not surprising,” according to Rachel Ziemba, adding that it would also serve as a scare tactic for the EU, who the US is still negotiating its trade deal.

Russian forces have continued to hammer Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, launching a deadly attack on the industrial city of Samar for the second time in three days.

Friday’s missile attack killed five people and injured 23 others in southeastern Samar – located outside the region’s main city, Dnipro – said regional governor Sergiy Lysak in a post on Telegram.

At least four of the wounded were in severe condition and were taken to hospital, he added.

The attack followed missile strikes earlier this week on both Dnipro and Samar, which killed at least 23, as Russian forces attempted to gain a foothold in Dnipropetrovsk for the first time in over three years of war.

Officials gave no immediate details about the damage inflicted on Samar, where an attack on an unidentified infrastructure facility on Tuesday killed two people.

Moscow earlier this week claimed to have captured two more villages near the border of the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Separately, authorities in Ukraine’s northern region of Kharkiv said Russian attacks killed one person and wounded three others.

Hundreds of kilometres to the south, in the Kherson region, authorities urged residents on Friday to prepare for extended periods without power after a Russian attack hit a key energy facility.

Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram that “Russians decided to plunge the region into darkness”.

The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched 363 long-range drones and eight missiles overnight into Friday, claiming that air defences stopped all but four of the drones and downed six cruise missiles.

Russia’s Defence Ministry, meanwhile, said 39 Ukrainian drones were downed in several regions overnight, including 19 over the Rostov region and 13 over the Volgograd region.

‘ Find a path ‘ in peace talks

The continued attacks on Dnipropetrovsk came as President Vladimir Putin said that he intended to scale back military expenditure and also indicated he was ready for a new round of peace negotiations with Ukraine.

The Russian president said his country was ready to reduce the military budget in the long term, owing to budgetary pressures and the increased defence spending having fuelled inflation.

Speaking to reporters in Minsk, Belarus, on Friday, he alluded to a new round of peace negotiations with Ukraine, potentially in Istanbul, although the time and venue had yet to be agreed.

He acknowledged that the peace proposals from Russia and Ukraine “are two absolutely contradictory memorandums”, but added, “That’s why negotiations are being organised and conducted, in order to find a path to bringing them closer together”.

Putin added that the two sides ‘ negotiators were in constant contact and that Russia was ready to return the bodies of 3, 000 more Ukrainian soldiers.

He also said relations between Russia and the United States were beginning to stabilise, attributing the improvement to efforts by US President Donald Trump.

“In general, thanks to President Trump, relations between Russia and the United States are beginning to level out in some ways”, said Putin.

Trump reportedly hinted that Russia’s conflict with Ukraine might be moving forward.