World Health Organization already cutting back on hiring, travel as Trump withdrawal set to hit funding
CBSN
Geneva — The World Health Organization said Friday it was reviewing its priorities in preparation for the withdrawal of its largest donor, the U.S., and stressed that it provides vital services that protect the country from health threats. President Trump on Monday signed an executive order directing the U.S. to withdraw from the WHO, a body he has repeatedly criticized over its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"This announcement has made our financial situation more acute, and we know it has created significant concern and uncertainty for the WHO workforce," the organization's chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a letter sent to WHO staff Thursday and seen by AFP on Friday.
He stressed that the United Nations' health agency regretted the decision by the leader of the U.S. — by far the agency's biggest donor — and hoped "the new administration will reconsider it."
Oswiecim, Poland — The 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops is being marked on Monday at the site of the former death camp, a ceremony that is widely being treated as the last major observance that any notable number of survivors will be able to attend.
Pope Francis urges eradication of antisemitism, says horror of the Holocaust must never be forgotten
Pope Francis warned of the "scourge of antisemitism" in his Angelus prayer on Sunday, the eve of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, noting it marks 80 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Israeli forces killed at least 15 people and injured more than 80 others in southern Lebanon on Sunday after protesters demanded their withdrawal in line with a ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah, Lebanese authorities said.
Women's soccer has its first million-dollar player after United States defender Naomi Girma moved from San Diego Wave to Chelsea on Sunday.
Jannik Sinner claimed his second consecutive Australian Open championship on Sunday, never facing a single break point and using his complete game to outplay and frustrate Alexander Zverev for a 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-3 victory in the final.
The world's focus will be on the remaining survivors of Nazi Germany's atrocities on Monday as world leaders and royalty join them for commemorations on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
Hamas released four Israeli hostages in Gaza early Saturday in exchange for 200 Palestinian prisoners to be released later in the day. It was the second release to occur as part of the ceasefire agreement that began last weekend.
President Trump signed an order Friday reinstating a policy that requires foreign nongovernmental agencies to certify that they don't provide or promote abortion if they receive U.S. federal funds for family planning assistance.
For decades, the United States has held considerable power in determining the direction of global health policies and programs. President Donald Trump issued three executive orders on his first day in office that may signal the end of that era, health policy experts said.
Geneva — The World Health Organization said Friday it was reviewing its priorities in preparation for the withdrawal of its largest donor, the U.S., and stressed that it provides vital services that protect the country from health threats. President Trump on Monday signed an executive order directing the U.S. to withdraw from the WHO, a body he has repeatedly criticized over its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
London — Record winds battered Ireland, Northern Ireland and parts of the mainland U.K. on Friday, with the severe gales expected to spread across the region, including the full width of Scotland, as the isles bore the brunt of Storm Éowyn.
Astronomers discovered supersonic winds on a giant gas planet located over 500 light-years from Earth.
A teenager who stabbed three young girls to death at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in England was sentenced Thursday to more than 50 years in prison for what a judge called "the most extreme, shocking and exceptionally serious crime."
Tel Aviv — Testing the bounds of a fragile ceasefire in its fifth day, Israel's military said Thursday that forces had opened fire in the southern Gaza Strip on masked, armed suspects who posed a threat to their safety. The Israel Defense Forces, in a statement, reported incidents east of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, and in the area of the Kerem Shalom border crossing, through which aid trucks have been delivering more food, water and medical supplies since the ceasefire took effect.
Hundreds of LGBTQ couples in Thailand got married Thursday as the country's landmark marriage equality law came into effect. Thailand is the first country or region in South East Asia to legalize same-sex marriage, and the third in Asia after Taiwan and Nepal.
At least 12 train passengers were killed on Wednesday after being hit by another service on an adjacent track in western India after they jumped from their coaches in panic to escape a rumored fire incident, the Press Trust of India reported.
A solitary sunfish at an aquarium in southwestern Japan lost its appetite, began banging into the side of the fish tank and appeared unwell days after the facility closed last month for renovations. As a last-ditch measure to save the popular fish, its keepers hung their uniforms and set up human cutouts outside the tank.
London — A 26-year-old man pleaded guilty Wednesday to the murder of a mother and two of her daughters at their family home just north of London last year, in an attack that involved a crossbow and a knife. Prosecutors said Kyle Clifford killed his 25-year-old ex-girlfriend Louise Hunt and her 28-year-old sister Hannah Hunt with a crossbow before stabbing their mother, Carol Hunt, 61, to death on July 9.