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WHO Fires Director In Asia Accused Of Racist Misconduct
ENGLAND — last year that dozens of staff employees accused him of racist, abusive, and unethical behavior that may have jeopardized the U.N. health agency’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization sacked its top officer in the Western Pacific.
In a message to staff members on Wednesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that Dr. Takeshi Kasai’s appointment had been “terminated” due to “findings of wrongdoing” after an internal inquiry.
Tedros did not refer to Kasai by name, mentioning only his title as regional director in the Western Pacific. The removal of a regional director is unprecedented in WHO history.
This trip has been unprecedented and difficult for all of us, Tedros stated. He said the selection process for the Western Pacific’s new regional director would start the following month, with the election in October.
When asked about Kasai’s nomination for the position, the Japanese government chose not to respond. Although he demanded a lot of his staff, Kasai previously denied acting in a racist or aggressive manner, noting that his actions “should not result in people feeling mistreated.”
Kasai harassed personnel in Asia regularly, according to a summary of the internal WHO inquiry delivered at a meeting of the agency’s executive board this week in Geneva. This harassment included “aggressive communication, public humiliation, (and) making racial insults.”
More than 30 unnamed WHO employees had complained in writing about the director to senior WHO officials.
Top WHO directors reported Kasai’s “toxic atmosphere,” staff employees’ fear of reprisal if they spoke out against him, and a “loss of faith” in WHO to the organization’s highest governing body.
According to private documents obtained by the A.P., the officials also discovered Kasai had falsified at least one performance evaluation of a subordinate.
Kasai was fired due to an A.P. investigation reported to have been published in January 2022. The research showed that more than 30 unnamed WHO employees had complained in writing about the director to senior WHO officials and members of the organization’s executive board.
Kasai attributed the emergence of COVID-19 in some Pacific countries to his employees’ “lack of capacity owing to their inferior culture, race, and socioeconomic level,” according to documents and audio that showed him making racist statements to his workers.
Kasai allegedly unlawfully communicated secret COVID vaccination information with other WHO employees so that his native Japan might use targeted donations to gain political advantage. Dr. Kasai, a physician from Japan, began his career in the nation’s public health system before joining WHO, where he has worked for more than 15 years.
Days following the A.P. article, WHO director Tedros revealed that Kasai was the subject of an internal investigation. Tedros alerted colleagues in an August email that Kasai was “on leave” and another senior official was deployed to replace him temporarily.
the investigation discovered senior WHO management was told of multiple exploitation claims in 2019
The firing of such a senior employee contrasts sharply with WHO’s hesitation to sanction other offenders of abusive and occasionally unlawful behavior, including sexual abuse and exploitation during the Congo’s Ebola epidemic in 2018–2020.
An A.P. investigation discovered senior WHO management was told of multiple exploitation claims in 2019 but refused to act and even promoted one of the managers implicated. More than 80 outbreak responders working primarily under WHO’s guidance sexually abused or exploited vulnerable women.
Due to a flaw in how WHO defines victims, a recent internal U.N. assessment determined that the agency’s response to one example of alleged exploitation did not breach the standards, a conclusion that independent experts called “absurd.”
Despite Tedros’ assurance that the organization has “zero tolerance” for misconduct, no senior WHO personnel connected to the sexual assault in the Congo have been terminated.
Professor of international politics at the Queen Mary University of London Sophie Harman said, “What we need right now is consistency in how WHO enforces the laws against misuse. The WHO needs to demonstrate to the survivors of sexual abuse and exploitation in (Congo) that they are important.
According to an A.P. investigation from January, a WHO physician who sought Kasai’s position as regional director for the Western Pacific had previously been accused of sexual assault.
Internal records revealed senior WHO management was aware of prior allegations of sexual harassment against Fijian doctor Temo Waqanivalu, who was also charged with assaulting a woman at a conference in Berlin. Waqanivalu was getting ready to bid for the position of regional director with the backing of a few WHO coworkers and his home nation.
According to Javier Guzman of the Center for Global Development, a strong internal judicial mechanism at WHO still needs to be improved.
Making choices in important cases like the one involving Dr. Kasai, according to Guzman, is insufficient. “WHO and Dr. Tedros should improve to ensure the validity of the zero-tolerance policy.”
SOURCE – (AP)
The deputy chairman of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s Defense and Security Committee has chastised Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for his “arrogance” about NATO defense spending. His policies jeopardize the alliance’s existence.
Trudeau’s policies are the freeloading policies of a failing NATO. “If everyone followed Trudeau’s policies, there would be no NATO,” he remarked.
This year, Canada is set to spend 1.37 percent of its GDP on defense, significantly lower than the two percent objective agreed upon by heads of government in 2014.
Members have decided that 2% should be the minimum as concerns rise about Russia’s ongoing assault on Ukraine.
Trudeau reiterated last week that his government is on a “concrete” track to meet the minimum aim by 2032.
“The world is getting more dangerous, more unstable, which is why we’ve committed to reaching the 2 percent, why we’ve almost doubled our investments in defense over the past years, and will continue to over the coming years,” Mr. Trump stated.
He stated that Canada intends to purchase submarines, increase its funding in NORAD, and improve partnerships with NATO.
Many Americans, particularly those who support President-elect Donald Trump, believe it is still too slow. Turner stated that if countries such as Canada do not step up, there will be consequences for those “who cheat.”
The Republican senator penned an op-ed in Newsweek describing Canada’s prime minister as NATO’s greatest threat.
In the op-ed, he stated that Trudeau’s leadership has been so arrogant that it believes it is beyond the need to recognize that authoritarianism is one of the most serious challenges to democracy.
The only way to preserve democracy is to have a robust defense. Trudeau’s policies have outsourced it.
They’ve freeloaded on American taxpayers. The alliance’s call, which Canada also agreed to, is for everyone to pay their fair share and get above 2%, which Justin Trudeau has failed to meet.
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(VOR News) – On Friday, the United States Supreme Court refrained from issuing a rule on Facebook’s permissibility of shareholders advancing a securities fraud claim.
The litigation alleges that Facebook, a subsidiary of Meta, misled investors about the improper utilization of user data from the social media site.
At their hearing on November 6, the justices denied Facebook’s appeal against a lower court’s ruling that allowed a class action lawsuit initiated by Amalgamated Bank in 2018 to proceed.
On November 6, the Supreme Court stated that the issue should not have been addressed and, therefore, opted not to resolve the fundamental legal question at hand. The intervention ensures that the lower court’s verdict remains in force.
The court issued a one-line order for dismissal without providing a rationale. This month, the Supreme Court addressed two cases concerning the ability of private litigants to hold companies accountable for purported securities fraud. One such instance was the dispute involving Facebook.
The alternative case for chip manufacturer NVIDIA, renowned for its specialization in artificial intelligence, was discussed on November 13th. The Supreme Court rendered a verdict in the NVIDIA case on November 13th.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Facebook claimed that the company had inappropriately withheld information from investors concerning a 2015 data breach involving the British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.
The incident impacted over 30 million Facebook users.
Facebook faced allegations of misleading investors, constituting a violation of the Securities Exchange Act, a federal statute established in 1934 that requires publicly traded companies to disclose the risks they encounter.
In 2018, media claims indicated that Cambridge Analytica had improperly utilized Facebook user data during Donald Trump’s successful 2016 presidential campaign, resulting in a fall in Facebook’s stock market price.
The investors have submitted a claim for unspecified monetary damages to partially offset the value of the stock they previously possessed.
The inquiry at hand was whether the company had contravened the law by declining to disclose details regarding the prior data breach in later business-risk disclosures while characterizing such scenarios as merely hypothetical.
Andy Stone, a representative, expressed his discontent with the Supreme Court’s decision to refrain from clarifying this specific legislative provision.
Stone asserted, “The plaintiff’s allegations are unfounded, and we will persist in our defense as the district court reviews this case.”
Facebook asserted that it was not obligated to disclose that the risk it had previously cautioned about had already materialized, as “a reasonable investor” would interpret risk disclosures as forward-looking statements.
President Joe Biden’s administration expressed its support for shareholders in this instance.
Initially dismissed by United States District Judge Edward Davila, the 9th United States Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reinstated the action.
The decision compelled Facebook to appeal to the Supreme Court.
As Alan Morrison, a law professor at George Washington University, states, the plaintiffs are anticipated to pursue discovery, a process entailing the sharing of information between the litigating parties, following the Supreme Court’s dismissal of the appeal.
Morrison also indicated that Facebook “may refile their motion to dismiss under a slightly altered standard, partially to achieve delay.”
After the Cambridge Analytica data breach, the United States government commenced inquiries into privacy protocols, alongside other lawsuits and a congressional inquiry. In 2019, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) initiated enforcement action against Facebook.
The company ultimately resolved the complaint for $100 million. Consequently, Facebook was obligated to remit a distinct penalty of $5 billion to the Federal Trade Commission of the United States.
The Securities and Exchange Commission, the federal agency overseeing fraudulent activities in the securities sector, has had its authority curtailed by prior Supreme Court rulings.
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Pam Bondi has been appointed as US Attorney General following Gaetz’s resignation.
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(VOR News) – President-elect Donald Trump selected Pam Bondi, a former Florida Attorney General and ally, to succeed Matt Gaetz on Thursday after the latter withdrew from consideration.
Gaetz’s drug use and sexual intercourse with a 17-year-old girl were the subject of an investigation by the House Ethics Committee. He denies any wrongdoing.
During Trump’s first administration, Pam Bondi, 59, served on the Opioids and Drug Abuse Commission. He served as police chief of the third-most populous state from 2011 to 2019.
She was also a member of Trump’s defense team at his first impeachment hearing, where he was charged with using military assistance to get Ukraine to look into the wrongdoing of his opponent, now President Joe Biden. The Senate cleared Trump on all charges.
The right-wing America First Policy Institute, which has collaborated with Trump’s campaign to create government concepts, most recently had Pam Bondi as its legal branch leader.
Unlike Pam Bondi, Gaetz lacks the experience necessary to serve as attorney general and will likely encounter resistance from Senate Democrats and some Republicans.
According to Jones Walker defense attorney David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor in Florida, “She is unequivocally qualified for the position on paper.” Throughout her life, she battled in court. Her resume stood out from the previous nominee.
In a tweet announcing his intention to nominate Bondi, Trump praised her skills as a prosecutor and her firm stance against crime as Florida’s first female attorney general. Trump said that even though Bondi was elected on November 5th, while numerous state and federal criminal investigations were underway, he pledged to keep federal prosecutions from being politicized.
According to Trump, “The biased Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans for an excessive duration.” That is not true anymore.
Discussion about Pam Bondi
In 2013, the Trump Foundation may have broken federal law by giving $25,000 to a political action committee that supported Pam Bondi. Bondi thought about looking into the for-profit Trump University.
Pam Bondi disputed that her decision to end her legal actions against Trump University following the 2016 disclosure of Trump’s $25,000 gift had anything to do with her decision to withdraw from those actions. According to her, all pertinent material was made public by her office.
The Trump team attributed the erroneous money disclosure to a “series of unfortunate coincidences and errors.” New York state fraud investigations resulted in the dissolution of both Trump University and the Trump Foundation.
After misleading Trump University students, he settled for $25 million and was fined $2 million for misusing charitable funds.
Following Special Counsel Jack Smith’s acquisition of two indictments against him for his interference in the 2020 election and his possession of secret materials after leaving office, Trump has voiced his displeasure with the present leadership of the Justice Department and pledged retaliation.
Bondi remains loyal
She and several other lawyers claimed that Smith’s appointment was illegal in an amicus brief they prepared in support of Trump in the secret information litigation. The Justice Department filed an appeal after U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump nominee, rejected the case.
According to a long-standing rule against charging a sitting president, Smith and other top Justice Department officials are examining how both Trump criminal cases were resolved.
Trump was incensed with the obstructionism of the Justice Department during his first administration. Bill Barr specifically refuted Trump’s baseless claims that he lost the 2020 election due to fraud, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions permitted an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Trump’s objectives for the Justice Department have been delineated through his public remarks and interviews with former department lawyers and Mark Paoletta, a conservative lawyer who develops the department’s policy.
Federal prosecutors may give illegal immigration cases priority.
Cities might have to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement to obtain a portion of the department’s $291 million justice assistance award.
The Civil Rights Division will probably refocus its attention from legal challenges to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the public and commercial sectors to police accountability to religious freedom.
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