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Guterres Appeals for $8 Bln to Equitably Vaccinate 40% of World in 2021

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres poses for a photograph during an interview with Reuters at UN headquarters in New York City, New York, US. Reuters
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres poses for a photograph during an interview with Reuters at UN headquarters in New York City, New York, US. Reuters
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Guterres Appeals for $8 Bln to Equitably Vaccinate 40% of World in 2021

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres poses for a photograph during an interview with Reuters at UN headquarters in New York City, New York, US. Reuters
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres poses for a photograph during an interview with Reuters at UN headquarters in New York City, New York, US. Reuters

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed on Thursday for $8 billion to equitably vaccinate 40% of people in all countries by the end of the year as the World Health Organization launched a plan aiming to inoculate 70% of the world by mid-2022.

"Crucially, the success of this plan requires equitable distribution," Guterres told reporters.

"Without a coordinated, equitable approach, a reduction of cases in any one country will not be sustained over time. For everyone's sake, we must urgently bring all countries to a high level of vaccination coverage," Reuters quoted him as saying.

Guterres pushed the Group of 20 rich countries to deliver on their "desire to get the world vaccinated" at a summit in Rome later this month.

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US Agency Focused on Foreign Disinformation Shuts Down

The State Department's Global Engagement Center has faced scrutiny and criticism from Republican lawmakers and Elon Musk. Mandel NGAN / AFP
The State Department's Global Engagement Center has faced scrutiny and criticism from Republican lawmakers and Elon Musk. Mandel NGAN / AFP
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US Agency Focused on Foreign Disinformation Shuts Down

The State Department's Global Engagement Center has faced scrutiny and criticism from Republican lawmakers and Elon Musk. Mandel NGAN / AFP
The State Department's Global Engagement Center has faced scrutiny and criticism from Republican lawmakers and Elon Musk. Mandel NGAN / AFP

A leading US government agency that tracks foreign disinformation has terminated its operations, the State Department said Tuesday, after Congress failed to extend its funding following years of Republican criticism.
The Global Engagement Center, a State Department unit established in 2016, shuttered on Monday at a time when officials and experts tracking propaganda have been warning of the risk of disinformation campaigns from US adversaries such as Russia and China, AFP reported.
"The State Department has consulted with Congress regarding next steps," it said in a statement when asked what would happen to the GEC's staff and its ongoing projects following the shutdown.
The GEC had an annual budget of $61 million and a staff of around 120. Its closing leaves the State Department without a dedicated office for tracking and countering disinformation from US rivals for the first time in eight years.
A measure to extend funding for the center was stripped out of the final version of the bipartisan federal spending bill that passed through the US Congress last week.
The GEC has long faced scrutiny from Republican lawmakers, who accused it of censoring and surveilling Americans.
It also came under fire from Elon Musk, who accused the GEC in 2023 of being the "worst offender in US government censorship [and] media manipulation" and called the agency a "threat to our democracy."
The GEC's leaders have pushed back on those views, calling their work crucial to combating foreign propaganda campaigns.
Musk had loudly objected to the original budget bill that would have kept GEC funding, though without singling out the center. The billionaire is an advisor to President-elect Donald Trump and has been tapped to run the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), tasked with reducing government spending.
In June, James Rubin, special envoy and coordinator for the GEC, announced the launch of a multinational group based in Warsaw to counter Russian disinformation on the war in neighboring Ukraine.
The State Department said the initiative, known as the Ukraine Communications Group, would bring together partner governments to coordinate messaging, promote accurate reporting of the war and expose Kremlin information manipulation.
In a report last year, the GEC warned that China was spending billions of dollars globally to spread disinformation and threatening to cause a "sharp contraction" in freedom of speech around the world.