
Destruction of hundreds of tonnes of expired foreign food aid a symbol of US cuts
The Senate early Thursday approved nearly US$9 billion in cuts to foreign aid as well as public broadcasting, formalising a radical overhaul of spending that Trump first imposed with strokes of his pen on taking office nearly six months ago.
US officials confirmed that nearly 500 tonnes of high-nutrition biscuits, meant to keep alive malnourished children in Afghanistan and Pakistan, were incinerated after they passed their expiration date in a warehouse in Dubai.
Lawmakers of the rival Democratic Party said they had warned about the expiring food since March. Senator Tim Kaine said that the inaction in feeding children 'really exposes the soul' of the Trump administration.
Packets of USAID 'ready to use' food. File photo: AP
Michael Rigas, the deputy secretary of state for management, acknowledged to Kaine that blame lay with the shuttering of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which was merged into the State Department after drastic cuts.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


South China Morning Post
4 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
China's Starlink rival faces woes, new Chinese tailless drone: SCMP daily highlights
Catch up on some of SCMP's biggest China stories of the day. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing A Chinese mega-constellation of communications satellites is facing serious delays that could jeopardise its ambitions to compete with SpaceX's Starlink for valuable orbital resources. The return of Donald Trump was supposed to bring Europe and China together. Yet, EU leaders will touch down in Beijing late on Wednesday for a summit with the lowest expectations in recent memory. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday that he would be holding trade negotiations with Chinese officials in Stockholm, Sweden next week. Photo: JIJI Press via AFP US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that he would meet his Chinese counterparts in Sweden next week to continue trade talks between the two countries, suggesting the current pause in sky-high tariffs aimed at each other could be extended.


South China Morning Post
4 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
China must ensure its green energy leadership is good for the world
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote in 2007 that 'Green is the new red, white and blue', arguing that the United States could cement its leadership through clean technology. The ensuing decades have seen US political dysfunction turn that on its head. Now in 2025, he argues that US President Donald Trump's ' big, beautiful bill ' will only 'make China great again'. It's not hard to see why he might think that. There is an intimate connection between generation capacity and national economic output. In a world driven by increasingly energy-hungry AI models , large digital infrastructure outlays and traditional industrial processes, abandoning the cheapest form of energy generation yet discovered to defend legacy interests in fossil fuels seems foolish. It has been a truism since the beginning of the 2020s that, per dollar spent on capacity, renewables now beat fossil fuels on price, and renewables are not dependent on a continuous stream of outside fuel at fluctuating prices. In that challenge lies opportunity. In a world plagued by climate instability, energy insecurity and economic uncertainty, the next global leader will be crowned not by war or wealth but by capability and capacity. Delivering on clean energy at scale will be the leading edge upon which these are determined, and China is positioning itself at the centre of this transformation. It is becoming the world's largest producer of solar panels and electric vehicles and underwriting a green revolution that could redefine global governance. As economic historian Adam Tooze recently pointed out during a dialogue at the Centre for China and Globalisation, China has effectively ignited a green energy revolution, forging capacity where there was once only framework and far-off dreams of substitution. In 2023 alone, China installed more solar capacity than the entire world did the previous year, and it's driving down the prices of installations elsewhere. The cost of solar has dropped to just 11 cents per watt of capacity in 2024. As Tooze said, 'Because that dominance – and it is dominance – of so many areas of production, very high quality, very high flexibility, and integration across the entire supply chain and reasonable cost, means that it's difficult for other people to imagine their economic future.'


South China Morning Post
8 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Philippines' Marcos secures trade deal with Trump, but tariffs only drop 1 percentage point
Read more: Despite weeks of high-stakes negotiations, the US offered only a symbolic concession in the trade deal clinched by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr as he wrapped up his Washington visit on July 22, 2025. US President Donald Trump only agreed to lower threatened tariffs by 1 percentage point, from 20% to 19%.