U.S. President Donald Trump says he has directed a halt to U.S. payments to the World Health Organization (WHO) pending a review of its warnings about the coronavirus and China. "The WHO failed in its basic duty and must be held accountable," Trump said at the briefing. In its most recent budget proposal from February, the Trump administration called for slashing the U.S. assessed funding contribution to the WHO to $57.9 million. Last week, the head of the WHO gave a strident defence of his agency's handling of the pandemic after Trump threatened to halt WHO funding. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, called for Trump last week to end the politicization of the global health crisis.

Source: CBC News April 14, 2020 22:32 UTC