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I'm VOA's Joe Ramsey with this worldwide news update.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday will meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington. AP correspondent Joe Fetterman has more from Jerusalem. This is the first visit by a foreign leader to the White House since Trump took office last month and the stakes are high. The two men are expected to discuss not only Israel's war in the Gaza Strip, but also issues that could impact the wider Middle East. Israel and Hamas are in the midst of a six-week cease-fire. During that time, Hamas is releasing several dozen hostages in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. But it's not quite clear what happens at the end of these six weeks, and talks are expected to begin this week on the next phase of this cease-fire. Netanyahu has been signaling to his hardline allies at home that he wants to resume the war against Hamas at the end of these six weeks. Trump, on the other hand, has signaled that he would like to see this war wind down. Their talks on Tuesday are expected to focus heavily on this issue, but also their shared broader goal of a peace agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia. AP correspondent Joe Fetterman. President Trump on Monday agreed to a 30-day pause on his tariff threats against Mexico and Canada as America's two largest trading partners took actions over Trump's concerns about border security and drug trafficking. Trump on Saturday had directed that tariffs on most imports from the two countries go into effect on Tuesday. The two nations threatened to retaliate, raising the prospect of a broader regional trade war. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on X that on a call with Trump he pledged additional cooperation on border security. It follows similar moves by Mexico earlier Monday. This is VOA News. The World Health Organization said on Monday hundreds of millions of dollars could be cut from its budget following President Trump's plan to withdraw the U.S. from the United Nations agency. Reuters correspondent Diane To reports. World Health Organization member states are looking at cutting part of its budget by $400 million, according to a document released on Monday. Opening its annual executive board meeting on Monday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus defended its work and recent reforms. He also again called on the U.S. to reconsider its exit. "We believe in continuous improvement and we would welcome suggestions from the United States and all member states for how we can serve you and the people of the world better." The budget cut will be addressed at the February 3 to 11 meeting in Geneva as member state representatives discuss the agency's funding and work for the 2026 to 27 period. The U.S. is the WHO's biggest government donor, contributing around 18 percent of its overall funding. The agency has already separately taken some cost-cutting steps after Trump's announcement. But the document adds some board representatives also wanted to send a message that the WHO would preserve its strategic direction despite the challenges. Reuters correspondent Diane To. President Trump on Monday ordered the U.S. government to create for the first time a sovereign wealth fund within the next year and said it could be used to purchase the social media app TikTok. Reuters correspondent Jillian Kitchener reports. Trump offered little in the way of detail and it was unclear how such a wealth fund would work. "Two other countries have sovereign wealth funds and they're much smaller countries and they're not the United States. We have tremendous potential in this country, tremendous." Details on how exactly the fund would operate and be financed were not immediately available. But Trump previously said it could be funded by tariffs and other intelligent things. According to the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds, there are over 90 such funds across the world managing over $8 trillion in assets. "We're gonna be doing something, perhaps, with TikTok." TikTok, which has about 170 million American users, was briefly taken offline on January 18, one day before a law, requiring its Chinese owner ByteDance to either sell it or face a ban, took effect. Reuters correspondent Jillian Kitchener. That wraps up this update, but the world and news never stop. For additional updates, visit our website, voanews.com. I'm Joe Ramsey, VOA News. |