- Ukraine says withdrew troops in parts of Kharkiv region
- Palestinian statehood key to Arab plans for post-war Gaza
- Taiwan drag queen performs for outgoing President Tsai
- Cannes gets rolling with strong day for women on screen
- Renault to pursue autonomous minibuses but not cars
- Knicks bounce back to crush Pacers, Jokic and Nuggets on a roll
- Clark struggles in WNBA debut defeat
- S. African communities terrorised by gold mining gangs
- Palestinians mark 'Nakba' anniversary as thousands flee Gaza's Rafah
- 'We will never register': Georgia NGOs vow to defy repressive law
- A-list stars, menstruating superheroes in Cannes VR competition
- France's Godreche says #MeToo allegations should not be theatre
- Brunson and Knicks bounce back to crush Pacers
- Indonesia floods kill 58 as rescuers race to find missing
- Chief of state oil company dismissed in Brazil
- Clark top scores but gives up 10 turnovers in WNBA debut defeat
- Asian markets mixed as focus turns to US inflation report
- Bus accident in Peru leaves at least 16 dead
- OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever announces departure
- Brazil government announces Petrobras chief dismissed
- Five years after 13-0 World Cup mauling, Thai women look to future
- Oleksandr Usyk: looking for heavyweight legacy on the Fury road
- Tyson Fury: the 'Gypsy King' of the ring riddled with contradictions
- Push for new US lithium mine leaves some Americans wary
- 'Sowing peace'? Colombia program for war criminals stokes debate
- US says Boeing can be prosecuted for 737 MAX crashes
- More money pledged for flood-stricken Brazil
- Parts of Canadian city in oil sands region evacuated as wildfire draws near
- New dad Scheffler, divorcing McIlroy add emotion to PGA drama
- Trump defense takes aim at ex-fixer Michael Cohen at trial
- Man City do feel the tension of title race, says Guardiola
- Watches belonging to F1 great Schumacher fetch millions at auction
- Postecoglou 'misread' Spurs' fans desperation to deny Arsenal title
- Nasdaq finishes at record as US stocks shrug off latest inflation data
- No.1 new dad Scheffler enjoying life but strives for more at PGA
- Bellingham, Vinicius shine as champions Madrid smash Alaves
- Man City can 'make history' with fourth consecutive Premier League: Rodri
- Singapore to swear in Lawrence Wong as new prime minister
- Blinken vows US will back Ukraine till security 'guaranteed'
- Ohtani interpreter appears in court over $17 mn fraud
- Haaland double puts Man City on brink of Premier League history
- In major change, Google to use AI-generated answers in search results
- Rahm says he's not slumping despite winless LIV start
- Paris Holocaust memorial hit with red hand graffiti
- Floods unite Brazilians in solidarity despite political rift
- Spieth tries again for career Grand Slam with PGA victory
- Massive manhunt after French prison officers killed, inmate escapes in ambush
- Biden sharply hikes US tariffs on Chinese EVs and chips
- Quarter of Gazans displaced again as fighting rages north to south
- Ex-fixer Cohen grilled by defense at Trump trial
Last chance for pandemic agreement talks
Countries return to the negotiating table on Monday for one last push on concluding a pandemic agreement, now in slimmed-down form with some of the thorniest aspects stripped out and shelved.
Two years of talks towards sealing a landmark accord on prevention, preparedness and response hit the deadline last month with nothing agreed in terms of concrete wording. The next deadline is the May 27 start of the World Health Organization's annual assembly of member states.
The 194 countries in the WHO are coming back to its Geneva headquarters for a do-or-die round of negotiations from Monday to May 10, to narrow their disagreements on how to best share resources needed to fight off the next pandemic.
"The next pandemic is not a matter of if, but when. If a new pandemic began tomorrow, we would face many of the same problems we faced with Covid-19," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on Wednesday.
"The key issue now is whether we will learn the painful lessons the pandemic has taught us."
- Streamlined new draft -
In December 2021, the raw sting of Covid-19 -- which shredded economies, crippled health systems and killed millions -- motivated countries' desire for a binding framework of commitments aimed at stopping another such disaster.
Despite broad agreement on what they want those commitments to achieve, big gaps remain between countries on how to go about it.
What was meant to be the ninth and final round of talks last month saw a 29-page draft swell to more than 100 as countries inserted proposed amendments.
Taking the situation into account, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) conducting the talks, issued a streamlined, 23-page version on April 16, with the word count down from 12,000 to 9,000.
The main disputes have revolved around access and equity: access to pathogens detected within countries, access to pandemic-fighting products such as vaccines produced from that knowledge, and equitable distribution of not only counter-pandemic tests, treatments and jabs but the means to produce them.
The new draft focuses on likely areas of common ground, setting up the basic framework, and parks some of the trickier detail in further talks planned over the next two years -- notably on how a planned WHO Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing System will work in practice.
- Draft provisions 'weakened' -
Non-governmental organisations attending the talks have been ploughing through the updated text, looking for what has survived and what has been jettisoned.
K. M. Gopakumar, senior researcher with the Third World Network, concluded that the new draft was "devoid of any concrete deliverables on equity and does not create any legal obligations to facilitate predictable and sustainable access to finance, pandemic-related products and technology".
For the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the draft agreement's obligations on technology transfer to poorer countries "remain weak".
The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) welcomed the retained provision on ensuring equitable access to medicines and health tools created through publicly-funded research and development.
However, obligations "that would have ensured that people can benefit from scientific progress and have equitable access to the medical tools they will need have been weakened or deleted from the text and must be reinstated", said DNDi's policy advocacy director Michelle Childs.
Some feel the balance of the text has shifted from international obligations towards national-level commitments.
- 'Fierce timeline' -
The next two weeks of talks may have been given a renewed sense of urgency by recent WHO warnings about the exponential growth of H5N1 bird flu -- with concerns about what could happen if it starts transmitting between humans.
The INB will take stock of progress on Friday to determine the way forward, and wants to complete negotiations on the text itself by May 5.
May 7-10 will focus on wording the resolution to be passed at the World Health Assembly.
"It's a very fierce timeline," WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told reporters on Friday.
While some countries are keeping their cards close to their chest, the White House has reaffirmed the United States' commitment to a successful conclusion of the talks.
Tsegab Kebebew Daka, Ethiopia's ambassador in Geneva, told an event in the city that "we believe the differences in the text are not huge. They are mainly differences of ideas, and there are not that many."
Australia's ambassador Amanda Gorely added: "All delegations need to come together and focus on finding consensus."
M.Ouellet--BTB