ROME: The World Health Organization (WHO) must safeguard its independence to retain credibility, claims an official who accuses the UN agency of censoring a report into Italy’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Francesco Zambon, a WHO coordinator based in Venice, is currently embroiled in an internal dispute over his allegations that the agency pulled the study at the request of a top Italian official who risked being embarrassed by its contents.
The WHO and the official deny any wrongdoing, but Zambon says what he sees as the failure to properly address his concerns has wider consequences for the agency.
“Now that we are about to go on mission to China, we must be sure that the WHO is free of any external influence, otherwise its independence is at risk,” he said in a telephone interview.
WHO experts probing the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic were this week denied entry to China, which has appeared reluctant to allow an independent investigation.
The UN agency previously faced strong criticism, led by the US, for seemingly being too soft on China and its lack of transparency on the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
“I believe that the world needs a WHO free of conflicts of interests, not just concerning the partners it works with ... but starting with its own staff,” Zambon said.
The Italian, 47, has worked at the WHO since 2008, first in Moscow and most recently as coordinator at the body’s European Office for Investment for Health and Development in Venice.
He coordinated work on a 102-page document analyzing Italy’s coronavirus response, after it became the first country outside China to face a major wave of infections.
The document was withdrawn a day after its release on May 13 — a decision that Zambon claims was to avoid embarrassing Ranieri Guerra, a senior WHO official who was previously a key player in Italy’s pandemic planning.
Guerra, director general for preventive health at the Italian health ministry during 2014-17 and now a WHO assistant director general, denies any wrongdoing.
WHO Europe meanwhile said last month that the Italy report was pulled because it contained “factual inaccuracies.”
“There were no political considerations, I can reassure you,” the WHO’s regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, said this week.
Zambon said there was an error in the report, but it was quickly fixed — and argued that publication would have helped other countries dealing with coronavirus.
“The entire world was looking at Italy,” he said.
Nevertheless, the document was released when most of Europe was already deep into the pandemic, and contained mostly familiar advice and recommendations.
The WHO said the report was never republished because by then the agency had found new ways for countries to share experiences of the pandemic.
Last month it made the document available to journalists to counter accusations of a cover-up.
The report said Italy’s pandemic preparedness plan had not been updated since 2006, and the initial reaction of its hospitals was “improvised, chaotic and creative.”
The controversy has caught the attention of prosecutors in Bergamo, the northern city that was the epicenter of Italy’s initial coronavirus outbreak.
Both Guerra and Zambon have been questioned as part of an investigation into what went wrong in the early stages of a pandemic that has so far killed more than 77,000 people in Italy.
“I have great confidence in Italian justice,” said Zambon.
He believes his revelations have now caused him to be sidelined at the WHO, but claims his complaints have gone nowhere.
“I can no longer work in Europe because I’ve been isolated — the typical fate of the whistleblower,” he said.
WHO Europe has refused to comment on any issues surrounding individual staff members.
Zambon added: “The risks for me are quite irrelevant, what I don’t want is all this to be swept under the carpet.
“It is a question of conflicts of interest and internal compliance mechanisms.”
WHO ‘must protect its independence’: UN official
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WHO ‘must protect its independence’: UN official
Man rescued from rubble in Myanmar’s capital but hope fading of finding more earthquake survivors
- The 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit midday Friday, toppling thousands of buildings, collapsing bridges and buckling roads
- Naing Lin Tun was pulled through a hole jackhammered through a floor from the rubble of the capital city hotel
BANGKOK: Rescue crews in Myanmar pulled a 26-year-old man out alive from the rubble of the capital city hotel where he worked early Wednesday, but most teams were finding only bodies five days after a massive earthquake hit the country.
After using an endoscopic camera to pinpoint Naing Lin Tun’s location in the rubble and confirm that he was alive, the man was gingerly pulled through a hole jackhammered through a floor and loaded on to a gurney nearly 108 hours after he was trapped in the hotel where he worked.
Shirtless and covered in dust, Naing Lin Tun appeared weak but conscious in a video released by the local fire department, as he was fitted with an IV drip and taken away. State-run MRTV reported that the rescue in the city of Naypyitaw was carried out by a Turkish and local team and took more than nine hours.
The 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit midday Friday, toppling thousands of buildings, collapsing bridges and buckling roads. So far, 2,719 people have been reported dead and another 4,521 injured but local reports suggest much higher figures.
The earthquake also rocked neighboring Thailand, causing the collapse of a high-rise building under construction in Bangkok. One body was removed from the rubble early Wednesday, raising the death total in Bangkok to 22 with 34 injured, primarily at the construction site.
Myanmar has been wracked by civil war and the earthquake is making a dire humanitarian crisis even worse, with more than 3 million people displaced from their homes and nearly 20 million in need even before it hit, according to the United Nations.
Countries have pledged millions in assistance to help Myanmar and humanitarian aid organizations with the monumental task ahead.
Australia on Wednesday said it was providing another $4.5 million, in addition to $1.25 million it had already committed, and had a rapid response team on the ground.
India has flown in aid and sent two Navy ships with supplies as well as providing some 200 rescue workers. Multiple other countries have sent teams, including 270 people from China, 212 from Russia and 122 from the United Arab Emirates.
A three-person team from the US Agency for International Development arrived Tuesday to determine how best to respond given limited US resources due to the slashing of the foreign aid budget and dismantling of the agency as an independent operation. Washington said on the weekend it would provide $2 million in emergency assistance.
Most of the details so far have come from Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, which was near the epicenter of the earthquake, and the capital Naypyitaw, about 270 kilometers (165 miles) north of Mandalay.
Many areas are without power, telephone or cell connections, and difficult to reach by road, but more reports are beginning to trickle in.
In Singu township, about 65 kilometers (40 miles) north of Mandalay, 27 gold miners were killed were killed in a cave-in, the independent Democratic Voice of Burma reported.
In the area of Inle Lake, northeast of the capital, many people died when homes built on wooden stilts in the water collapsed in the earthquake, the government’s official Global New Light of Myanmar reported without providing specific figures.
High waves cause damage on Sydney waterfront
- Several homes were evacuated at Botany Bay in Sydney’s south around midnight as waves surged across the coast
- Further north at Sydney’s premier Bondi Beach, the coast was lashed by a 5.5-meter swell, officials said
SYDNEY: Sydney beachfront properties were flooded and coastal infrastructure damaged after a large swell combined with a king tide to batter the Australian shore, officials said Thursday.
Several homes were evacuated at Botany Bay in Sydney’s south around midnight as waves surged across the coast, according to New South Wales State Emergency Service spokesman Andrew Edmunds.
Further north at Sydney’s premier Bondi Beach, the coast was lashed by a 5.5-meter (18-foot) swell, officials said.
Windows were shattered at Bondi Icebergs Swimming Club, a waterfront pool, gymnasium and restaurant complex. CCTV footage showed waves bursting through glass doors after 11 p.m. on Tuesday.
“It has just been devastating,” club general manager Bob Tate said. “I’ve been a member for 50 years at Bondi. I’ve never seen this sort of thing before. You know, the sheer magnitude of the level of water and the power of the water coming through must’ve just been horrendous.”
Tate added that on the pool deck around 15 glass panels were splintered, floors were damaged, and cupboards and firehoses were ripped off the walls. It was “quite extraordinary,” he said.
South of Botany Bay at Cronulla Beach, lifeguard Steve Winner said the beach, along with parts of the pavement behind it and electrical infrastructure, had been damaged by 4-meter (13-foot) waves.
Authorities warned on Thursday of further hazardous surf with the potential to cause coastal erosion and damage from the Illawarra region south of Sydney to the Hunter region north of Sydney.
Europe will respond proportionately to likely Trump tariffs, French industry minister says
“Europe has always been on the side of negotiation and calming things down, because trade wars, you know, only produce losers,” Ferracci told RMC radio.
US President Donald Trump will announce sweeping new reciprocal tariffs on global trading partners on Wednesday, raising concerns about price increases and likely prompting retaliation from other countries.
Trump to escalate global trade tensions with new reciprocal tariffs on US trading partners
- Details of Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariff plans still being formulated and closely held ahead of an announcement ceremony
- The new duties are due to take effect immediately after Trump announces them, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump was poised to impose sweeping new reciprocal tariffs on global trading partners on Wednesday, upending decades of rules-based trade, threatening cost increases and likely drawing retaliation from all sides.
Details of Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff plans were still being formulated and closely held ahead of a White House Rose Garden announcement ceremony scheduled for 4 p.m. Eastern Time (2000 GMT).
The new duties are due to take effect immediately after Trump announces them, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday, while a separate 25 percent global tariff on auto imports will take effect on April 3.
Trump for weeks has said his reciprocal tariff plans are a move to equalize generally lower US tariff rates with those charged by other countries and counteract their non-tariff barriers that disadvantage US exports. But the format of the duties was unclear amid reports that Trump was considering a 20 percent universal tariff.
A former Trump first-term trade official told Reuters that Trump was more likely to impose comprehensive tariff rates on individual countries at somewhat lower levels.
The former official added that the number of countries facing these duties would likely exceed the approximately 15 countries that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had previously said the administration was focused on due to their high trade surpluses with the US
Bessent told Republican House of Representatives lawmakers on Tuesday that the reciprocal tariffs represent a “cap” of the highest US tariff level that countries will face and could go down if they meet the administration’s demands, according to Republican Representative Kevin Hern.
Ryan Majerus, a former Commerce Department official, said that a universal tariff would be easier to implement given a constrained timeline and may generate more revenue, but individual reciprocal tariffs would be more tailored to countries’ unfair trade practices.
“Either way, the impacts of today’s announcement will be significant across a wide range of industries,” said Majerus, a partner at the King and Spalding law firm.
Stacking tariffs
In just over 10 weeks since taking office, the Republican president has already imposed new 20 percent duties on all imports from China over fentanyl and fully restored 25 percent duties on steel and aluminum, extending these to nearly $150 billion worth of downstream products. A month-long reprieve for most Canadian and Mexican goods from his 25 percent fentanyl-related tariffs also are due to expire on Wednesday.
Administration officials have said that all of Trump’s tariffs, including prior rates, are stacking, so a Mexican-built car previously charged 2.5 percent to enter the US would be subject to both the fentanyl tariffs and the autos sectoral tariffs, for a 52.5 percent tariff rate – plus any reciprocal tariff Trump may impose on Mexican goods.
Growing uncertainty over the duties is eroding investor, consumer and business confidence in ways that could slow activity and drive up prices.
Economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta said a recent survey showed corporate financial chiefs expected tariffs to push their prices higher this year while cutting into hiring and growth.
Rattled investors have sold stocks aggressively for more than a month, wiping nearly $5 trillion off the value of US stocks since mid-February. Wall Street ended mixed on Tuesday with investors stuck in limbo awaiting details of Trump’s announcement on Wednesday.
Retaliatory measures
Trading partners from the European Union to Canada and Mexico have vowed to respond with retaliatory tariffs and other countermeasures, even as some have sought to negotiate with the White House.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke on Tuesday about Canada’s plan to “fight unjustified trade actions” by the US, Carney’s office said.
“With challenging times ahead, Prime Minister Carney and President Sheinbaum emphasized the importance of safeguarding North American competitiveness while respecting the sovereignty of each nation,” Carney’s office said in a statement.
US companies say a “Buy Canadian” movement is already making it harder for their products to reach that country’s shelves.
Trump has argued that American workers and manufacturers have been hurt for decades by free-trade deals that have lowered barriers to global commerce and fueled the growth of a $3 trillion US market for imported goods.
The explosion of imports has come with what Trump sees as a glaring downside: Massively imbalanced trade between the US and the world, with a goods trade deficit that exceeds $1.2 trillion.
Economists warn his remedy – hefty tariffs – would raise prices at home and abroad and hammer the global economy. A 20 percent tariff on top of those already imposed would cost the average US household at least $3,400, according to the Yale University Budget Lab.
US approves $5.58 billion F-16 fighter jet sale to Philippines
- News follows months of escalating confrontations between the Philippines and China in the South China Sea
- Manila and Washington have deepened their defense cooperation since President Ferdinand Marcos took office in 2022
WASHINGTON: The United States said Tuesday it has approved the possible sale of $5.58 billion in F-16 fighter jets to the Philippines, as Washington backs its ally in rising tensions over China.
The State Department said it was green-lighting a sale that includes 20 F-16 jets and related equipment to the Philippines, a treaty-bound ally of the United States.
The sale would “improve the security of a strategic partner that continues to be an important force for political stability, peace and economic progress in Southeast Asia,” a State Department statement said.
It would also boost “the Philippine Air Force’s ability to conduct maritime domain awareness” and “enhance its suppression of enemy air defenses,” the statement said.
The news follows months of escalating confrontations between the Philippines and China in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost in its entirety despite an international ruling that its assertion has no merit.
A State Department spokesperson said the deal would be final only after “a signed Letter of Offer and Acceptance” was received from the “purchasing partner.”
Philippine defense department spokesman Arsenio Andolong said he had “not received any official notice of such a decision.”
But the Philippines has publicly expressed interest in acquiring F-16s since at least the administration of former president Benigno Aquino which ended in 2016.
Manila and Washington have deepened their defense cooperation since President Ferdinand Marcos took office in 2022 and began pushing back on Beijing’s sweeping South China Sea claims.
In December, the Philippines angered China when it said it planned to acquire the US mid-range Typhon missile system in a push to secure its maritime interests.
Beijing warned such a purchase could spark a regional “arms race.”
President Donald Trump’s administration has sought to redirect US military efforts to Asia to face a rising China, especially as tensions rise over Taiwan, and to lessen involvement in Europe despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
On Tuesday, as Chinese ships and warplanes surrounded Taiwan in a simulated blockade, Philippines military chief General Romeo Brawner said his country would “inevitably” be involved should the self-ruled island be invaded.
“Start planning for actions in case there is an invasion of Taiwan,” he told troops in northern Luzon island, without naming the potential invader.
“Because if something happens to Taiwan, inevitably we will be involved.”
He also said that the bulk of this month’s joint US-Philippine “Balikatan,” or “shoulder to shoulder,” military exercises would be conducted in northern Luzon, the part of the Philippines nearest Taiwan.
“These are the areas where we perceive the possibility of an attack. I do not want to sound alarmist, but we have to prepare,” he added.
On a visit to Manila last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth vowed to “reestablish deterrence in the Indo-Pacific region” in light of “threats from the Communist Chinese.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also reiterated US defense commitments to the Philippines, a contrast to the Trump administration’s frequent talk of “freeloading” off the United States by allies in Europe.
