White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement that it is imperative that the report be independent and free from “alteration by the Chinese government”, echoing concerns raised by the administration of former President Donald Trump, who also moved to quit the WHO over the issue.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy fired back with a strongly-worded statement, saying the United States had damaged multilateral cooperation and the WHO in recent years, and should not be “pointing fingers” at China and other countries that supported the WHO during the Covid-19 pandemic.

China welcomed the U.S. decision to reengage with the WHO, but Washington should hold itself to the “highest standards” instead of taking aim at other countries, the spokesperson said.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Friday said all hypotheses were still open about the origins of Covid-19, after Washington said it wanted to review data from a WHO-led mission to China, where the virus first emerged.

A WHO-led mission, which spent four weeks in China probing the origins of the Covid-19 outbreak, said this week that it was not looking further into the question of whether the virus escaped from a lab, which is considered highly unlikely.

The Trump administration had said it suspected the virus may have escaped from a Chinese lab, which Beijing strongly denies.

Sullivan noted that U.S. President Joe Biden had quickly reversed the decision to disengage from the WHO, but said it was imperative to protect the organization’s credibility.

China refused to give raw data on early Covid-19 cases to the WHO-led team probing the origins of the pandemic, according to one of the team’s investigators, potentially complicating efforts to understand how the outbreak began.

The team had requested raw patient data on 174 cases that China had identified from the early phase of the outbreak in the city of Wuhan in December 2019, as well as other cases, but were only provided with a summary, Retuers reported.

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As the historic second impeachment trial of Donald Trump got underway on Tuesday afternoon, the former President decided to spend the entire week watching events unfold on TV.

“A notable difference from Trump’s first impeachment trial will be the expected silence from the accused. During his first impeachment trial, Trump kept up a running commentary on Twitter, at one point posting 142 tweets in a single day as prosecutors laid out their case against him. Americans will be deprived of Trump’s analysis this time round, after he was banned from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube following the Capitol assault,” The Guardian reports.

A 56-44 vote at the end of the arguments determined the trial to be constitutional — so further proceedings can now go ahead. 6 Republicans broke rank with their party to vote in favour of the constitutionality of the trial. Forty-five Republican senators had already signed on to a motion before the trial started arguing that the proceeding is unconstitutional. Eventually, one more Republican senator defected at the end of Day One of the trials.

Who presides over the trial?

Trump’s first impeachment was presided over by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, according to US Constitution. However, as this trial is of former president, the longest-serving Democratic senator, Patrick Leahy, who holds the title of president pro tempore – will preside. It will be prosecuted by a team of nine impeachment managers from the House, and the whole Senate was sworn in as the jury on 26 January.

What could happen after the trial?

Since Mr. Trump is no longer in office, he can’t be removed from it which is what a conviction would normally lead to. Instead, in this unusual case, there could be another separate vote to bar him from running for office again. That would require a simple majority vote and would prevent him from running for President in 2024 which he has indicated he might want to do.

But even in the unlikely event that he is convicted and barred from running for federal office again, Mr. Trump could still continue to remain a force in American politics by endorsing candidates, holding rallies or becoming a conservative media personality.

The post Donald Trump’s Impeachment trial 2.0: What you need to know appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

NBC confirmed this news quoting three officials in the Trump administration. The news comes just 24 hours before Donald Trump made a statement regarding the mandatory usage of masks among workers in the White House.

After the diagnosis, authorities are now tracing the contacts of the cafeteria worker. It is still unclear when this cafeteria will be reopened. According to reports, the cafeteria may remain closed for the next two weeks.

On the Tuesday briefing at the White House, President Donald Trump had warned everyone that the coronavirus positive cases in the country will surge in the coming weeks. The president also urged everyone to wear masks and maintain effective social distancing measures.

In the meantime, a section of people in the United States are opposing the government’s decision to implement the rule of compulsory face masks. According to these people, such rules are literally violating the civil rights of people in the country.

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