US Destroys 500 Tons Of Expired Food Aid, Assures Won't Affect Distribution
The State Department says its destruction of 500 metric tons of emergency food aid that was stored in a warehouse in the Middle East was required because it had expired and that the move will not affect the distribution of similar assistance moving forward.
The high energy biscuits - used primarily to provide immediate nutritional needs for children in crisis situations - had been stored in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to respond to emergencies and could no longer be safely sent to potential recipients, so it was destroyed, department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters, Thursday.
The issue, first reported by The Atlantic, has been raised repeatedly in congressional hearings this week, with Democratic lawmakers accusing the Trump administration of creating a crisis and ignoring urgent humanitarian needs by suspending most foreign assistance in its first month in office.
The administration already has dismantled the US Agency for International Development, the nation's main agency for distributing food aid abroad, and is currently trying to rescind billions of dollars in foreign assistance. It comes as 319 million people around the world are facing acute hunger, and people in places like Gaza, Sudan, South Sudan, Mali and Haiti are teetering on the brink of starvation, according to the UN World Food Program.
Bruce said the amount destroyed was less than 1% of the 1 million metric tons of food assistance that the United States supplies each year and suggested that the destroyed stockpile would be replaced. But she could not say if the Trump administration would continue to provide the 1 million metric tons going forward.
"If something is expired, we will destroy it," Bruce said, brushing aside appeals for the administration to either distribute the assistance itself or give it to aid agencies who could do so. "It's a matter of whether or not it's safe to distribute."
Bruce said destroying expired stockpiled food - which is generally stored in warehouses near regions or countries at risk for drought, famine and other disasters - are not unprecedented and have occurred under previous administrations that have not pursued draconian cuts in foreign assistance.
The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Jeanne Shaheen, asked Deputy Secretary of State for Management, Michael Rigas on Wednesday about the destruction of the food.
The New Hampshire senator secured a commitment from Rigas to produce an inventory of current food aid stockpiles and a pledge from the administration to try to distribute warehoused assistance before it expires.
"If the State Department doesn't have the officials to distribute it, let's give it to other aid organisations so that they can distribute it, so it's not going to waste and that people are getting the benefit of not only what American taxpayers pay for, but the people who are truly desperate," Shaheen said.
She noted there are stocks of cooking oil sitting in a Houston port and food aid stored in Djibouti that may soon expire.
Rigas said the administration's intention was not to deliberately allow food aid to expire and go to waste.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
25 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Asian markets, yen steady after Japan poll; focus turns to tech, trade
In Japan, the ruling coalition lost control of the upper house in an election on Sunday, further weakening Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's grip on power as a tariff deadline looms Reuters SYDNEY Asian shares and the yen held their ground on Monday as Japanese elections proved bad for the government but no worse than already priced in, while Wall Street futures braced for earnings from the first of the tech giants. Investors were also hoping for some progress in trade talks ahead of President Donald Trump's August 1 tariff deadline, with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick still confident a deal could be reached with the European Union. There were reports Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping were closer to arranging a meeting, though likely not until October at the earliest. In Japan, the ruling coalition lost control of the upper house in an election on Sunday, further weakening Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's grip on power as a tariff deadline looms. Ishiba expressed his intention to stay in the position, which along with a market holiday, limited the reaction and the yen was 0.4 per cent firmer at 148.29 to the dollar. "Ishiba will try to govern with support from some within the opposition, but this likely means a looser fiscal policy and is not good news for bond yields," said Rodrigo Catril, a senior FX strategist at NAB. "History also suggests that domestic political uncertainty tends to keep the BOJ on the side-lines, so the prospect of rate hikes is now set to be delayed for a little bit longer." The Bank of Japan still has a bias to raise rates further but markets are pricing little chance of a move until the end of October. While the Nikkei was shut, futures traded up at 39,875 and just above the cash close of 39,819. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was flat, while South Korean stocks added 0.4 per cent. Mega caps kick off S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures both edged up 0.1 per cent, and are already at record highs in anticipation of more solid earnings reports. A host of companies reporting this week include Alphabet and Tesla, along with IBM. Investors also expect upbeat news for defence groups RTX, Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics. Ramped up government spending across the globe has seen the S&P 500 aerospace and defence sector rise 30 per cent this year. In bond markets, US Treasury futures held steady having dipped late last week after Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller repeated his call for a rate cut this month. Most of his colleagues, including Chair Jerome Powell, have argued a pause is warranted to judge the true inflationary impact of tariffs and markets imply almost no chance of a move in July. A September cut is put at 61 per cent, rising to 80 per cent for October. Powell's reticence on rates has drawn the ire of Trump who threatened to fire the Fed chief, before backing down. The spectre of a potential political appointee who would seek to ease policy sharply has investors on edge. The European Central Bank meets this week and is expected to hold its rates steady at 2.0 per cent following a string of cuts. "The press conference will likely keep highlighting uncertainty and need to wait for tariff negotiations to conclude before deciding the next step," said analysts at TD Securities in a note. "Similarly, its 'meeting-by-meeting' language would be retained in the release." The euro was unchanged at $1.1630 in early trading, having dipped 0.5 per cent last week and away from its recent near-four-year top of $1.1830. The dollar index was a fraction lower at 98.40. In commodity markets, gold was little changed at $3,348 an ounce with all the recent action in platinum which last week hit its highest since August 2014. [GOL/] Oil prices were caught between the prospect of increased supply from OPEC+ and the risk European Union sanctions against Russia for its war in Ukraine could curb its exports.[O/R] Brent edged up 0.1 per cent to $69.36 a barrel, while US crude added 0.1 per cent to $67.39 per barrel. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
25 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Erdogan says support for two-state deal on ethnically split Cyprus absolute
Turkiye's president reaffirmed his full backing for a controversial peace deal that envisions the establishment of two separate states AP Nicosia Turkish Cypriots on Sunday celebrated Turkiye's military invasion of Cyprus that cleaved the island nation along ethnic lines 51 years ago. Turkiye's president reaffirmed his full backing for a controversial peace deal that envisions the establishment of two separate states. It's a proposal that the majority Greek Cypriots in the island's internationally recognised southern part reject out of hand. It would formalise Cyprus' partition and give Turkiye a permanent foothold they see as a bid for control of the entire, strategically situated country and its offshore hydrocarbon wealth. Our support for (Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar's) vision for a two-state solution is absolute, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in remarks to a crowd during celebrations that culminated with a military parade. It was scheduled this year for the evening to avoid the worst of the scorching mid-summer's heat. It is time for the international community to come to terms with the facts on the ground, Erdogan added, urging the international community to establish diplomatic and economic relations with the breakaway state in Cyprus' northern third that Turkish Cypriots declared in 1983. Turkiye's invasion came in the immediate aftermath of a coup staged by Athens junta-backed supporters of uniting Cyprus with Greece. Currently, only Turkiye recognises the Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence and maintains 35,000 troops in the north. Erdogan's renewed support for a two-state deal came just days after Tatar, the island's Greek Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, the foreign ministers of guarantor' powers Greece and Turkiye, and Britain's minister of state for Europe gathered at UN headquarters in New York for meetings with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to end an eight-year moratorium on formal peace negotiations. The meeting achieved little in the way of a return to fully fledged negotiations as Tatar insisted on recognition for the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state as a prerequisite. The meeting did, however, achieve some progress on a number of confidence-building measures such the exchange of cultural artifacts and the setting up of an advisory committee on civil society. Guterres said he'll meet again with Tatar and Christodoulides in September and hold another wider meeting after a Turkish Cypriot leadership election in October in which Tatar is running on a two-state platform. Turkiye and the Turkish Cypriots insist a two-state deal is the only way forward because decades of UN-mediated peace talks based on a UN Security Council endorsed framework of reunifying Cyprus as a federation no longer had any meaning. That switch came after the last big push for a peace accord in the summer of 2017. It fell through on what Greek Cypriots said was a Turkish and Turkish Cypriot insistence on keeping a permanent Turkish troop presence on the island and enshrining military intervention rights for Turkiye as part of any deal. Greek Cypriots also rejected a demand for blanket veto powers for the minority Turkish Cypriots on all government decisions. In the south where Greek Cypriots commemorated the invasion with solemn memorials to the war dead, Christodoulides said the international community gives no support to a two-state deal. He said Turkiye's continuing occupation of European territory subverts its ambitions for closer European Union ties and undermines the role it wishes to play in the region.
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
25 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Brazil's top court defies Trump, signals no retreat on Bolsonaro probe
Donald Trump's tariff threat against Brazil over a legal probe into his political ally, former President Jair Bolsonaro, caught the Supreme Court in Brasilia off guard. The top court is in recess during July — not all its judges were even in the country — making it difficult to convene to formulate a response. But a group of justices including Alexandre de Moraes, who is overseeing the former president's case, immediately began discussing a response aimed more at asserting national sovereignty than easing tensions with the US. Just after Trump threatened 50 per cent tariffs on Brazil on July 9, this group advocated for the court to issue a statement challenging the US president's assertion of a 'Witch Hunt,' according to two people with knowledge of how the events unfolded. In the end, Chief Justice Luis Roberto Barroso agreed in a call with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva that the first response should come from the political sphere, a third person said, all of them asking not be named discussing private deliberations. 'If there was some expectation that the threats would generate some fear in the Brazilian Supreme Court, the effect is the opposite,' said Thiago de Aragao, head of Arko International, a Washington-based consultancy. 'Their willingness to go through this all the way to the end is much higher, especially because they want to demonstrate their sovereignty and independence.' That reality signals turbulence ahead between Latin America's economic and political heavyweight helmed by a seasoned leftist leader and an unapologetically mercantilist US under a president who is now largely unfettered by legal constraints. Since then, Trump reiterated his tariff threats in an open letter, Brazil's top court ordered Bolsonaro to wear an ankle monitor alleging a flight risk, and the US State Department revoked US visas for Moraes and other justices. Early warnings It's a clash of personalities and political cultures that's been building for some time. Since early this year, officials from the US embassy in Brasilia had reached out to Brazil's Supreme Court to warn that the ongoing investigation into whether Bolsonaro had sought to overturn his 2022 election loss threatened to harm trade relations, according to one of the people with knowledge of the conversations. Brazil's Supreme Court didn't reply to a request for comment. The US embassy said it has made clear its 'concern about the politicization of the investigations' involving Bolsonaro and his supporters. The issue has been raised 'during interactions with Brazilian authorities, for some time now,' according to the July 18 statement issued by the embassy's press office in Portuguese. Brazilian justices aware of the advisories initially shrugged them off as absurd. There was no way, they reasoned, the US would intervene in what was ultimately a domestic legal affair, one of the people said. But if Brazilian judges had underestimated the White House, it quickly became clear that Trump, too, had miscalculated. To the majority of the court's members, the Bolsonaro case is part of a larger fight to safeguard a relatively young democracy the former Army captain allegedly put in peril. And unlike the US Supreme Court, which helped clear the way for Trump's return to power despite charges that he illegally conspired to overturn his 2020 defeat, Brazil's has no intention of giving in. The court's determination is typically ascribed — by supporters and critics alike — to Moraes, the crusading justice overseeing both the coup trial and spearheading an aggressive campaign against social-media disinformation that has also drawn the ire of Trump and members of his movement. As part of his efforts, the 56-year-old judge has ordered the removal of accounts accused of spreading fake news from platforms like X, Rumble and Meta's Facebook. He's clashed with right-wing journalists and commentators who say he's abusing his power to target political opponents, and last year waged a public tussle with Elon Musk after banning access to X in Brazil. His prominent role in Brazil's most high-profile legal fights has turned him into the supervillain of Bolsonaro's movement: Eduardo Bolsonaro, a son of the former president, has spent months in the US lobbying Washington to put sanctions on the judge. Moraes has declined requests for comment. US, Brazil parallels In reality, the majority of the court's 11 members are united in the belief that they are waging an existential fight for Brazilian democracy — one with implications that stretch far beyond Brazil's borders. It's a view that solidified in the wake of the 2023 insurrection attempt in which thousands of Bolsonaro supporters ransacked major government buildings, including the Supreme Court, the presidential palace and Congress — events that drew natural comparisons to the Capitol riots in Washington that followed Trump's 2020 defeat. Even the dates were similar: the US rioting came on Jan. 6; Brazil's attempted coup was Jan. 8. As clear as the parallels are, the responses from the country's Supreme Courts couldn't be much different. The US tribunal ruled in 2024 that Trump enjoyed some immunity from criminal charges over his efforts to overturn the results, effectively killing chances of a trial before last year's election. His subsequent victory put an end to the case altogether. 'I see Brazil with mechanisms to protect its democracy that are much efficient what we've seen in the US,' said Robert Dias, a professor of constitutional law at Getulio Vargas Foundation law school in Sao Paulo. 'The American constitution only has force when institutional actors are loyal to it.' Brazil, by contrast, moved swiftly: In 2023, its electoral court — a separate body made up of a rotating cast of Supreme Court justices — barred Bolsonaro from holding office for eight years for spreading voter fraud conspiracies, ending any chance of a swift return to the presidency. The judicial system has moved similarly rapidly to find the culprits the Jan. 8 2023 insurrection in Brasilia. Federal police recommended the coup attempt charges in November 2024. Within months, the Supreme Court had approved them and set the stage for a trial. More outspoken by tradition than their American counterparts, the justices have left little doubt about their motivations: They want to conclude the trial before Brazilians vote again in October 2026. That has added fuel to claims that they've predetermined the outcome and robbed Bolsonaro of due process. But in recent days, judges have pushed back, arguing that their aggressive approach was necessary to avoid the sort of democratic collapse that has happened elsewhere. 'An independent and active court was necessary to prevent the collapse of institutions, as has occurred in several countries around the world, from Eastern Europe to Latin America,' Chief Justice Barroso wrote in a letter published on its website on July 13. 'The Supreme Federal Court will judge independently and based on the evidence.' Despite the July recess, Moraes continued working, and Bolsonaro's case proceeded as normal. the Prosecutor General's Office submitted its closing arguments on July 14, requesting his conviction for the attempted coup. The Supreme Court is expected to return from recess in August and likely to conclude the case soon. What remains uncertain is how far Trump is willing to go to support Bolsonaro. Eduardo Bolsonaro and conservative digital influencer Paulo Figueiredo, grandson of the last president of the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985, spent the past several days in Washington in meetings at the State Department and, according to them, at the White House. In a sign of Trump's unconventional diplomacy, Eduardo and Figueiredo have become key sources of information about Brazil for his administration, according to diplomatic sources. 'Everyone's position was unanimous: There will not be a millimeter of concession unless Brazil takes the first step,' Figueiredo said Wednesday of the meetings held in Washington. 'The warning we heard was: 'If things continue at this pace, President Trump may take additional measures, which could even involve the financial market.'' Donald Trump has so far said he won't back down. 'It is my sincere hope that the Government of Brazil changes course, stops attacking political opponents, and ends their ridiculous censorship regime,' Trump wrote in the letter addressed to Bolsonaro Thursday night. 'I will be watching closely.'
