Five years ago, the world was hearing the first reports of a mysterious flu-like illness emerging from Wuhan, China, now known as Covid-19.

The pandemic that followed brought more than 14 million deaths, and sent shock waves through the world economy. About 400 million people worldwide have had long Covid. World leaders, recognising that another pandemic was not a question of “if” but “when”, promised to work together to strengthen global health systems.

But negotiations on a new pandemic agreement stalled in 2024, even as further global public health threats and emergencies were identified. If a new pandemic threat emerges in 2025, experts are yet to be convinced that we will deal with it any better than the last.

What are the threats?

While experts agree that another pandemic is inevitable, exactly what, where and when is impossible to predict.

New health threats emerge frequently. World health leaders declared an outbreak of mpox in Africa an international public health emergency in 2024. As the year ended, teams of specialists were probing a potential outbreak of an unknown illness in a remote area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, now thought to be cases of severe malaria and other diseases exacerbated by acute malnutrition.

Maria van Kerkhove, interim director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention at the World Health Organization (WHO), is concerned about the bird flu situation – the virus is not spreading human to human but there have been an increasing number of human infections in the past year.

While there is a well-established international monitoring system specifically focused on influenza, surveillance in sectors such as trade and agriculture, where humans and animals mix, is not comprehensive enough, she says. And she stresses that the ability to properly assess the risk “depends on the detection, the sequencing, the transparency of countries to share those samples”.

The Covid-19 pandemic left health systems worldwide “really shaky” and has been followed by a long list of other health crises, she says. “Seasonal influenza started circulating, we had an mpox emergency, we’ve had Marburg, we’ve had cholera, we’ve had earthquakes, we’ve had floods, measles, diphtheria, dengue, Oropouche. Health systems are really buckling under the weight and our health workforce globally has really taken a beating. Many have left. Many are suffering from PTSD. Many died.”

What keeps her up at night, she says, is “complacency”, worrying that the response to a new threat will be hampered by “the notion that ‘it’ll just go away’, or ‘it’ll burn itself out’”.

Are we doing anything better?

The world has never been in a better position when it comes to the expertise, technology and data systems to rapidly detect a threat, Van Kerkhove says. The expansion of genomic sequencing abilities to most countries worldwide, and better access to medical oxygen and infection prevention and control, remain “really big gains” after the Covid-19 pandemic, she adds.

It means her answer to whether the world is ready for the next pandemic “is both yes and no”.

“On the other hand, I think the difficulties and the trauma that we’ve all gone through with Covid and with other outbreaks, in the context of war and climate change and economic crises and politics, we are absolutely not ready to handle another pandemic,” she says. “The world doesn’t want to hear me on television saying that the next crisis is upon us.”

The world of public health is “fighting for political attention, for fiscal space, for investment” – rather than nations working to stay in “a steady state of readiness”, she says.

The long-term solution, she says, is “about getting that level of investment right. It’s about getting that sense of urgency correct. It’s about making sure that the system isn’t fragile.”

Is money available for pandemic preparation?

Rwanda’s minister of health, Dr Sabin Nsanzimana, found himself dealing with two major disease outbreaks in 2024: Africa’s mpox public health emergency, and 66 cases of Marburg virus in his own country.

He also co-chairs the governing board of the Pandemic Fund, set up in November 2022 as a financing mechanism to help poorer countries prepare for emerging pandemic threats.

If the next pandemic arrives in 2025, he warns: “Sadly, no, the world is not ready. Since the Covid public health emergency ended last year, too many political leaders have turned their attention and resources toward other challenges. We are entering once again what we call the cycle of neglect. People are forgetting just how costly the pandemic was to human lives and to economies and are failing to heed its lessons.”

He says the Pandemic Fund “urgently needs more resources to fulfil its mission” – it has received requests from low- and middle-income countries totalling $7bn (£5.6bn) to fund pandemic preparation and response investments, against $850m available.

What has happened in international talks?

In 2022 the WHO began negotiations for a new pandemic accord that would provide a firm basis for future international cooperation. But talks failed to yield a result by an initial deadline of the annual World Health Assembly in May 2024. Negotiators are now aiming for a deadline of this year’s May meeting.

So far the talks have actually worsened trust levels between countries, says Dr Clare Wenham of the department of health policy at LSE.

There is no agreement on what Wenham calls “the big elephant in the room” of “pathogen access and benefit sharing” – essentially, what guarantees poorer countries are given that they will have access to treatments and vaccines against a future pandemic disease, in exchange for providing samples and data that allow those therapies to be created. Research suggests more equal vaccine access during the Covid-19 pandemic could have saved more than a million lives.

“[Governments] are just so far apart, and no one is really willing to budge,” says Wenham, with only 10 days of actual negotiating time scheduled before the World Health Assembly deadline. Practical questions remain about the feasibility of what is being proposed, she adds, “even if you get over the fundamentals of how unwilling governments are to compromise”.

Her assessment is blunt: “We’ve had the biggest pandemic of our lifetimes, and we’re worse prepared than we were when we went in.”

She is among commentators who fear that any accord pushed through in May will lack real teeth, agreeing only a top-level framework, with trickier detailed decisions delayed.

But those involved in the process have rebutted that idea. Anne-Claire Amprou, co-chair of the WHO’s Intergovernmental Negotiating Body, said as December talks drew to a close: “We need a pandemic agreement which is meaningful, and it will be.”

The Guardian

A US transparency advocacy group has opened a temporary exhibition in New York with only one text on display: a print-out of all the files released by the US Department of Justice – roughly 3.5 million pages – relating to financier and convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein.

The library, dubbed “The Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room,” has bound all the documents released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act in 3,437 volumes, all numbered and organized on shelves. “The truth is hard to deny when it’s printed and bound for you to see,” reads the website for the Institute of Primary Facts, the Washington-based nonprofit behind the display.

Those interested in seeing the files at the library in Tribeca can do so by registering online. However, due to errors by the Department of Justice in failing to redact the names of some of the victims included in the documents, the general public is not allowed to consult the files. The exhibit offers exceptions for some professionals like journalists and lawyers.

The pop-up also has a display on the longstanding relationship between President Donald Trump and Epstein, who died in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges involving minors.

The pair were friends for decades before they reportedly fell out in 2004 over a property deal, after which Trump reportedly denounced his former ally. He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing after showing up repeatedly in the so-called “Epstein Files.”

“We’re a pro-democracy organization, with the goal of educating the public using these kinds of sort of pop-up museums and other in-real-life experiences to help people understand the corruption in the United States, the dangers to democracy,” David Garrett, one of the creators behind the project, told AFP.

Garrett said he believes “there needs to be real public outcry” about how the Trump administration has handled the document release, with many accusing justice officials of covering up Trump’s ties to Epstein. “And what we attempted to do here was to create, or help to create public outcry to have real accountability,” he added.

The exhibit is open to the public until May 21.

Le Monde with AFP

Electric car giant BYD has become the first Chinese business to be raised in the European Parliament over allegations of labor abuses in Hungary, CNBC has learned, following a watchdog’s investigation into working conditions at the site.

Contractors hired to build BYD’s factory in Hungary allegedly kept thousands of employees working seven days a week, with shifts lasting more than 12 hours a day, according to a report published on April 14 by New York-based watchdog China Labor Watch (CLW). The group said it interviewed 50 workers and visited the factory site three times since October 2025.

China Labor Watch, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that has tracked worker conditions since its founding in 2000, shared the report’s findings with EU government representatives. Earlier this month, three members of the European Parliament formally asked the European Commission about the alleged labor abuses in Hungary.

The allegations by China Labor Watch mark the first time claims of labor abuses linked to a Chinese-owned auto business manufacturing in the European Union have been brought to the attention of the European Commission, according to checks by CNBC. 

In February, a worker reportedly died on-site during a crane operation. Citing conversations with workers, CLW founder Qiang Li told CNBC there had been more deaths on site.

He added that, based on conversations with workers, broader medical support was inadequate as individuals were not always employed on work visas with corresponding medical insurance.

Hungary’s National Ambulance Service told CNBC Thursday that since Feb. 1, emergency medical services were called to the factory site 12 times, with one death. 

The latest allegations come as BYD has expanded into an automotive powerhouse, surpassing Tesla as the world’s largest electric car manufacturer in 2025. BYD is among a wave of Chinese companies expanding overseas, aiming to sell more than a million cars outside China this year as sales in its home market slump.

One contractor named in the report, AIM Construction Hungary, is a subsidiary of Jinjiang Construction Group — the same firm linked to a 2024 scandal at BYD’s factory in Brazil that national labor authorities said, following investigations, involved conditions “analogous to slavery.” 

BYD claimed in December 2024 that it stopped working with Jinjiang Construction’s Brazilian subsidiary in the wake of the scandal. But the CLW report allegations indicate BYD hired another subsidiary of the same Jinjiang group to build the factory in Hungary.  The report said CLW reviewed a sample labor contract for jobs at BYD’s Hungary factory, which included the option of being sent to Brazil and Turkey, where BYD is also building a factory.

AIM Construction Hungary was previously known as China Jinjiang Construction Hungary, according to company records from Hungary’s Ministry of Justice, accessed through an authorized data provider.

BYD and the Jinjiang entities did not respond to CNBC’s requests for comment. Authorities in the EU also did not respond.

The facility in the southern Hungarian city of Szeged is one of five BYD sites in Hungary, where the automaker established its European headquarters nearly a year ago during a visit by chairman Wang Chuanfu.

Forced to stay

The EU raised tariffs on China-made electric cars in 2024, in a bid to localize production. But China-made vehicles still climbed to a record 9.3% of new cars sold in the bloc in December, according to Rhodium Group.

BYD is rapidly growing its market share. New BYD cars registered in the EU more than doubled in the first two months of the year to 29,291, exceeding Tesla and gaining 1.8% of the market, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.

By model, BYD’s Seal U ranked third in January registrations, behind models from Renault and Skoda, according to European Commission data. More than two-thirds of new passenger cars sold in Europe in January were electric.

Hungary received the bulk of China’s growing automotive investment in Europe over the last three years, according to Rhodium Group data.

BYD’s Szeged factory is slated to produce 300,000 cars per year at full capacity, though the timeline to reach that target is unclear.

As construction of the factory progressed, workers, mostly from China, were allowed to rest only when inclement weather halted work, according to CLW.

Managers “wanted to begin production of cars in January [2026], so they were rushing the project’s timeline — they weren’t letting workers leave,” Li said in Mandarin remarks translated by CNBC.

The Szeged facility manufactures BYD’s Dolphin Surf model, according to a company statement citing BYD Executive Vice President Stella Li. Local media reported in January that trial production had begun.

CLW’s Li said the contractors used a range of financial levers to keep workers on-site. Some were promised free plane tickets home if they worked for more than six months; others had wages withheld until their contracts were fulfilled, or incurred miscellaneous charges such as recruitment fees even before arriving on-site, according to the report.

Employees were directed to tell labor inspectors that they only worked “five days per week, eight hours per day, with one hour of overtime,” the report said. CLW alleged their actual working hours directly violated Hungary’s Labor Code — which limits working hours to eight per day, and no more than 48 hours a week — and that their conditions resemble the International Labor Organization’s definition of forced labor.

When CNBC contacted Hungary’s National Directorate-General for Aliens Policing about the allegations, the government department said it “took the necessary measures within the scope of its authority to conduct examinations of the matters described in the [CLW’s] submissions.”

Political fallout

In Brazil, BYD’s labor issues have led to political ripple effects.

Luiz Felipe Brandao de Mello, head of Brazil’s agency tasked with enforcing national labor standards, was removed from his post, according to an official government gazette. Reuters reported, citing two sources close to the matter, that de Mello lost his position due to a decision to add BYD to a blacklist restricting its access to loans.

Brazil’s labor ministry had added BYD to the list days earlier — only to have a Brazilian court reverse that decision until a final ruling was made.

Brazil’s national association of labor inspectors did not respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.

CNBC