Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Wednesday, April 15th, and this is your FT news briefing.

Donald Trump freezes US funding for the World Health Organization.

The US Treasury reaches a deal to prop up the airlines

and two leading U.S. banks brace for a sharp rise in credit losses. Plus the F.T.'s economics editor,

Chris Giles, will unpack the IMF's Grim Global Economic

Outlook.

I'm Mark Filipino and here's the news you need to start your day. Yesterday President Donald Trump accused the World Health Organization of

quote severely mismanaging the coronavirus outbreak.

He said he's halting U.S. funding to the organization to review the

WHO's role in quote, covering up the spread of the coronavirus.

The reality is that the WHO failed to adequately obtain vet and share information in a timely

and transparent fashion.

That was the president at yesterday's White House coronavirus task force briefing, Democrats slammed Mr. Trump's decision

to freeze funding. They accused the president of playing political games to distract from his

own handling of COVID-19. The U.S. is the largest single contributor to the WHO,

giving the body approximately $500 million each year.

A hundred and sixteen million of that is mandated by the United Nations and around another 400 million is involuntary payments.

One of the industries hardest hit by the ripple effect of the coronavirus outbreak is one step closer to a bailout from the US government.

Leading airlines are facing a dangerous cash crunch now that travel has come to a halt. And carriers were already

allocated $25 billion as part of the $2 trillion stimulus legislation put in place last month.

Yesterday, the U.S. Treasury Department

announced that it struck a deal with U.S. Airlines

...