All COVID-19 origin theories remain on the table, WHO leader says
The World Health Organization said all hypotheses for the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic are still on the table, after U.S. authorities this week backed the theory that the virus originated from a lab.
“If any country has information about the origins of the pandemic, it is essential for that information to be shared with WHO and the international scientific community,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a press briefing on Friday.
Tedros has called repeatedly for more transparency from China, and on Friday he said it will be impossible to be sure about the origins of the virus until authorities there share data. A joint WHO-China team has said a spread from wild animals is far more likely than a leak out of a human lab — an assessment FBI Director Christopher Wray contradicted this week.
Tedros said he has written to and spoken with high-level officials in China, as recently as a few weeks ago, and that until China is transparent and conducts all the necessary investigations, all scenarios will be on the table.
—Bloomberg News
At CPAC, devoted conservative base cheers on Marjorie Taylor Greene
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Shortly after U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wrapped up her speech, which mostly focused on attacking medical treatments for transgender youth, she made her way down media row at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
A horde of fans begging for photos and journalists with cameras and microphones shouting questions crowded around her. While there were other high-profile Republicans around at the same time Friday, including Donald Trump Jr. and U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, none drew quite the spectacle that Greene did.
“She is a rock star,” Melissa Cornwell exclaimed to her CPAC crew, all of them donned in red sequin jackets that said “Proud Texans” on the back and yellow T-shirts that when they all stood together spelled out “Trump.”
Cornwell said she came to CPAC this year to hear from former President Donald Trump, who will deliver the closing speech Saturday. But she was also glad to hear from Greene, whose speech Cornwell described as “right on point.” Cornwell said Greene has what it takes to be president one day or perhaps Trump’s vice president if he wins in 2024.
—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
‘How can we let bygones be bygones?’ Intense talks highlight California reparations meeting
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Passionate voices filled a downtown auditorium on Friday during an intense discussion over whether Blacks and other historically disenfranchised Americans should receive reparations from the state.
Among the more than 100 people who turned out for California’s Reparations Task Force meeting was Gloria Pierrot-Dyer. She’s a Roseville resident with roots going back to Allensworth — a Central Valley town founded in the early 20th century by Blacks who were ex-slaves.
Pierrot-Dyer, 71, who comes from a farming family, shared that her father had to travel miles to the next nearest well for 11 years to obtain water for their home and their animals. Neighboring white farmers in the area had wells and actively worked to keep Black farmers from accessing water, she said. Her story resonated with many at the hearing.
“It’s not going to solve the problem if we just throw money at it,” Pierrot-Dyer said. ”(We need) programs and resources that undo the psychological harm that has been done by being surrounded by hatred for centuries.”
—The Sacramento Bee
Belarus court sentences Nobel Peace Prize laureate Bialiatski to 10 years
Belarusian human rights activist Ales Bialiatski, who won the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize while in prison, was sentenced to 10 years in a penal colony as his country’s authoritarian government continues a crackdown on opponents.
Two other members of the Bialiatski-led Viasna Human Rights center, Valiantsin Stefanovich and Uladzimir Labkovich, were sentenced to nine and seven years each, according to state-owned news agency Belta. All three were convicted on charges of financing anti-government protests and “smuggling cash” in an organized group. They have denied wrongdoing.
The United Nations called on Belarusian authorities in January to drop the charges and immediately release them. Germany’s Foreign Ministry condemned the “show trial” against Bialiatski and his colleagues and demanded the release of more than 1,400 political prisoners and a halt to the repression of civil society.
Bialiatski is the chairman of Viasna, a non-government organization that has tracked human rights violations in Belarus since 1996.
—Bloomberg News
