BRIEF—Trump warns of permanent stop to WHO funding unless it makes changes

In a letter to World Health Organization (WHO) director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, US President Donald Trump, who last month suspended US funding to the agency, threatened to make this temporary freeze permanent and reconsider the USA’s membership altogether.

The USA has until now been by far the largest funder of the WHO.

President Trump says the organization must make 'major substantive improvements within the next 30 days' for US funding to continue, accusing the WHO of promoting China's 'disinformation' about the coronavirus outbreak, although WHO officials denied the accusation and China said it was transparent and open.

The threat came on the same day the WHO bowed to calls from most of its member states to launch an independent probe into how it managed the international response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Chinese President Xi Jinping also announced that China would provide $2 billion to help respond to the outbreak and its economic fallout.

President Xi said China supports the idea of a comprehensive review of the global response to COVID-19 and that it should be 'based on science and professionalism led by WHO, and conducted in an objective and impartial manner'.