TRUMP HALTS WHO FUNDING OVER HANDLING OF CORONAVIRUS; ‘NOT THE TIME’, SAYS

UN CHIEF

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he has instructed his administration

to halt funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) over its handling of

the coronavirus pandemic while his administration reviews its response to

the global crisis.

Trump, at a White House news conference, said the WHO had ”failed in its

basic duty and it must be held accountable.” He said the group had promoted

China's “disinformation” about the virus that likely led to a wider outbreak

of the virus than otherwise would have occurred.

The Republican president has accused the WHO of being too lenient with China

in the earliest days of the pandemic, causing unnecessary deaths by failing

to impose a travel ban on China.

“The WHO failed in this basic duty and must be held accountable,” Trump

said.

The United States is the biggest overall donor to the Geneva-based WHO,

contributing more than $400 million in 2019, roughly 15% of its budget.

The decision drew immediate condemnation. American Medical Association

President Dr. Patrice Harris called it “a dangerous step in the wrong

direction that will not make defeating COVID-19 easier” and urged Trump to

reconsider.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday it was

“not the time” to reduce resources for the World Health Organization after

President Donald Trump halted US funding over the bodyÂ’s handling of the

coronavirus pandemic.

“Now is the time for unity and for the international community to work

together in solidarity to stop this virus and its shattering consequences,”

he said.

TRUMP IS NOT A KING, SAYS CUOMO

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo took to morning TV shows on Tuesday to push

back against President Donald Trump’s claim of “total” authority to reopen

the nationÂ’s virus-stalled economy, noting that a President is not an

absolute monarch.

“We don’t have a king,” Mr. Cuomo told NBC. “We have a President. That was a

big decision. We ran away from having a king, and George Washington was

President, not King Washington. So the President doesnÂ’t have total

authority.”

The Democratic Governor, whose State has become the epicentre of the

COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., was reacting to Mr. TrumpÂ’s assertion on

Monday that “when somebody is President of the United States, the authority

is total.”

When asked on CNN’s “New Day” what he would do if the Republican President

ordered him to reopen New York’s economy, Mr. Cuomo said “If he ordered me

to reopen in a way that would endanger the public health of the people of my

State, I wouldnÂ’t do it. And we would have a constitutional challenge

between the state and the federal government and that would go into the

courts and that would be the worst possible thing he could do at this

moment.”

TALIBAN CALLS FOR ISLAMIC EMIRATE IN AFGHANISTAN, DRAFTS A CHARTER WITH

RULES

The Taliban have drafted a charter with rules for the future governance of

Afghanistan that virtually envisages a return to the era when the terror

group was in power in Kabul during 1996-2001, according to a media report on

Tuesday.

The draft charter, which was shared with ToloNews channel by a senior Afghan

government official, calls for establishing an Islamic emirate, has 149

articles on a broad range of topics including how laws will be passed, and

states the Islamic emirate is not obliged to implement UN laws that

contradict Islamic values.

The development comes at a time when there is growing concern within

government circles in India and other neighbouring countries that the

Taliban, long accused of having strong ties with PakistanÂ’s military

establishment, are trying to take advantage of the Covid-19 crisis to push

through their agenda.

“The Taliban are acting as if they are already in power in Kabul. There has

been no reduction in violence and the Taliban have done nothing to

demonstrate that they will act against al-Qaeda in keeping with the

agreement they signed with the US,” said a person familiar with developments

who declined to be named.

“The Taliban’s top leadership continues to be in Pakistan and there is

little doubt that the group is acting at the behest of the Pakistani

military to ensure India has little or no role in the current situation in

Afghanistan,” the person said, adding similar concerns were prevalent among

diplomats of several Western nations.

CORONAVIRUS | INFECTIONS HAVE ‘CERTAINLY’ NOT PEAKED YET, WARNS WHO

Spain and Austria allowed partial returns to work on Tuesday but Britain and

France extended lockdowns to try to rein in a pandemic which the World

Health Organisation warned had not yet peaked.

Nearly 2 million people globally have been infected and more than 1,20,000

have died in the most serious pandemic in a century. The epicentre has moved

from China, where the virus first emerged in December, to the U.S., which

now has the highest death toll at 23,568.

The World Health Organization said the number of new cases was easing in

some parts of Europe, including Italy and Spain, but outbreaks were growing

in Britain and Turkey.

“The overall world outbreak, 90% of cases are coming from Europe and the

United States of America. So we are certainly not seeing the peak yet,” WHO

spokeswoman Margaret Harris told a briefing in Geneva.

TRUMP TO CONVENE G7 LEADERS IN VIDEO LINK TO DISCUSS PANDEMIC

U.S. President Donald Trump will hold a video teleconference with G7 leaders

on Thursday to coordinate national responses to the coronavirus outbreak,

the White House said on Tuesday.

Mr. Trump, who is head of the G7 this year, had planned to hold this year's

summit at the presidential retreat of Camp David, Maryland, in June, but

moved it to a virtual setting due to the virus.

The Group of Seven nations consists of the United States, France, Britain,

Italy, Canada, Japan and Germany, and all seven of them have been hit hard

by the virus.

“Working together, the G7 is taking a whole-of-society approach to tackle

the crisis across multiple areas, including health, finance, humanitarian

assistance, and science and technology,” said White House spokesman Judd

Deere.

The Thursday session is a follow-up to their March 16 video conference, the

first time G7 leaders had met in that format, to go over efforts to defeat

the coronavirus.

In addition to the meeting this week, another session is expected in May to

lay the groundwork for the June video conference.

CORONAVIRUS: 'WORLD FACES WORST RECESSION SINCE GREAT DEPRESSION'

The global economy will contract by 3% this year as countries around the

world shrink at the fastest pace in decades, the International Monetary Fund

says.

The IMF described the global decline as the worst since the Great Depression

of the 1930s.

It said the pandemic had plunged the world into a "crisis like no other".

The Fund added that a prolonged outbreak would test the ability of

governments and central banks to control the crisis.

Gita Gopinath, the IMF's chief economist, said the crisis could knock $9

trillion (£7.2 trillion) off global GDP over the next two years.

While the Fund's latest World Economic Outlook praised the "swift and

sizeable" response in countries like the UK, Germany, Japan and the US, it

said no country would escape the downturn.

It expects global growth to rebound to 5.8% next year if the pandemic fades

in the second half of 2020.

"A partial recovery is projected for 2021," said Ms Gopinath. "But the level

of GDP will remain below the pre-virus trend, with considerable uncertainty

about the strength of the rebound.

"Much worse growth outcomes are possible and maybe even likely."

BARACK OBAMA ENDORSES DEMOCRAT JOE BIDEN'S 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN

Former U.S. President Barack Obama finally endorsed his vice president Joe

Biden's presidential campaign on Tuesday in an effort to bring the

Democratic Party together ahead of the election.

After staying on the sidelines as a record high number of Democratic

candidates fought for the right to take on President Donald Trump at the

November 3 election, Mr. Obama gave his support to Mr. Biden in a video

posted online.

“Choosing Joe to be my vice president was one of the best decisions I ever

made and he became a close friend. And I believe Joe has all the qualities

we need in a president right now,” Mr. Obama said in the video.

The endorsement by the first black U.S. president came after Mr. Biden's

last remaining rival in the Democratic nominating race, Senator Bernie

Sanders, backed Mr. Biden on Monday.

The former president's support also gives Mr. Biden access to a network of

donors and other allies, some of whom were initially cool to the former vice

president.

‘AREN’T ANY PARTICULARLY BIG’: US DOWNPLAYS NORTH KOREA’S SUSPECTED MISSILE

LAUNCHES

The US militaryÂ’s top general played down North KoreaÂ’s fresh batch of

suspected missile launches on Tuesday, saying the Pentagon did not see them

as threatening.

“These were short range. These aren’t any particularly big, big missiles,”

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley said.

While the Pentagon was still analysing its data, “I don’t think it’s

particularly provocative or threatening to us,” Milley said.

“It may be tied to some celebrations that are happening inside North Korea,

as opposed to any deliberate provocation against us.” South Korea’s Joint

Chiefs said the North earlier Tuesday fired what were believed to be

short-range cruise missiles from Munchon into the sea, one day before Seoul

holds parliamentary elections.

The firing also came a day before the nuclear-armed North marks the 108th

anniversary of the birth of founder Kim Il Sung, grandfather of the current

leader Kim Jong Un.

NEW ZEALAND'S ARDERN TAKES PAY CUT AMID CORONAVIRUS LOCKDOWN

New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is taking a 20 percent pay cut

for the next six months. The salary also apply to government ministers and

public service chief executives, Ardern said in a press conference on

Wednesday.

"It's about leadership," she said.

"If there was ever a time to close the gap between different positions, it's

now."

FORMER PAKISTANI CRICKETER ZAFAR SARFRAZ DIES OF CORONAVIRUS

Former Pakistani first-class cricketer Zafar Sarfraz became the first

professional player in the country to die after contracting the novel

coronavirus, his family confirmed Tuesday.

The 50-year-old first fell ill earlier this month and was put on a

ventilator at a hospital in Peshawar after his condition deteriorated.

He died late Monday.

“Sarfraz was healthy and lively but some 10 days ago he developed symptoms

of the coronavirus and did not survive,” said a family member who spoke to

AFP.

Sarfraz, a middle-order batsman, played 15 first-class games in Peshawar and

retired in 1994.

Pakistan has recorded more than 5,000 coronavirus cases to date and nearly

100 deaths.