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First Post
19-07-2025
- Politics
- First Post
Millions at risk as Trump's USAID crackdown pauses water projects globally
Trump's dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has left life-saving food and medical aid rotting in warehouses and thrown humanitarian efforts around the world into turmoil. read more People protest outside of the headquarters for United States Agency for International Development (USAID), before Congressional Democrats hold news conference in Washington, DC. AFP The Trump administration's decision to slash nearly all U.S. foreign aid has left dozens of water and sanitation projects half-finished across the globe, creating new hazards for some of the people they were designed to benefit, Reuters has found. Reuters has identified 21 unfinished projects in 16 countries after speaking to 17 sources familiar with the infrastructure plans. Most of these projects have not previously been reported. With hundreds of millions of dollars in funding cancelled since January, workers have put down their shovels and left holes half dug and building supplies unguarded, according to interviews with U.S. and local officials and internal documents seen by Reuters. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD As a result, millions of people who were promised clean drinking water and reliable sanitation facilities by the United States have been left to fend for themselves. Water towers intended to serve schools and health clinics in Mali have been abandoned, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. In Nepal, construction was halted on more than 100 drinking water systems, leaving plumbing supplies and 6,500 bags of cement in local communities. The Himalayan nation will use its own funds to finish the job, according to the country's water minister Pradeep Yadav. In Lebanon, a project to provide cheap solar power to water utilities was scrapped, costing some 70 people their jobs and halting plans to improve regional services. The utilities are now relying on diesel and other sources to power their services, said Suzy Hoayek, an adviser to Lebanon's energy ministry. In Kenya, residents of Taita Taveta County say they are now more vulnerable to flooding than they had been before, as half-finished irrigation canals could collapse and sweep away crops. Community leaders say it will cost $2,000 to lower the risk – twice the average annual income in the area. 'I have no protection from the flooding that the canal will now cause, the floods will definitely get worse,' said farmer Mary Kibachia, 74. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Trump's dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development has left life-saving food and medical aid rotting in warehouses and thrown humanitarian efforts around the world into turmoil. The cuts may cause an additional 14 million deaths by 2030, according to research published in The Lancet medical journal. The Trump administration and its supporters argue that the United States should spend its money to benefit Americans at home rather than sending it abroad, and say USAID had strayed from its original mission by funding projects like LGBT rights in Serbia. With an annual budget of $450 million, the U.S. water projects accounted for a small fraction of the $61 billion in foreign aid distributed by the United States last year. Before Trump's reelection in November, the water projects had not been controversial in Washington. A 2014 law that doubled funding passed both chambers of Congress unanimously. Advocates say the United States has over the years improved the lives of tens of millions of people by building pumps, irrigation canals, toilets and other water and sanitation projects. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD That means children are less likely to die of water-borne diseases like diarrhea, girls are more likely to stay in school, and young men are less likely to be recruited by extremist groups, said John Oldfield, a consultant and lobbyist for water infrastructure projects. 'Do we want girls carrying water on their heads for their families? Or do you want them carrying school books?' he said. The U.S. State Department, which has taken over foreign aid from USAID, did not respond to a request for comment about the impact of halting the water projects. The agency has restored some funding for life-saving projects, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said American assistance will be more limited going forward. At least one water project has been restarted. Funding for a $6 billion desalination plant in Jordan was restored after a diplomatic push by King Abdullah. But funding has not resumed for projects in other countries including Ethiopia, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, say people familiar with those programs who spoke on condition of anonymity. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD That means women in those areas will have to walk for hours to collect unsafe water, children will face increased disease risk and health facilities will be shuttered, said Tjada D'Oyen McKenna, CEO of Mercy Corps, a nonprofit that worked with USAID on water projects in Congo, Nigeria and Afghanistan that were intended to benefit 1.7 million people. 'This isn't just the loss of aid — it's the unraveling of progress, stability, and human dignity,' she said. In eastern Congo, where fighting between Congolese forces and M23 rebels has claimed thousands of lives, defunct USAID water kiosks now serve as play areas for children. Evelyne Mbaswa, 38, told Reuters her 16-year-old son went to fetch water in June and never came home – a familiar reality to families in the violence-wracked region. 'When we send young girls, they are raped, young boys are kidnapped…. All this is because of the lack of water,' the mother of nine said. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD A spokesperson for the Congolese government did not respond to requests for comment. In Kenya, USAID was in the midst of a five-year, $100 million project that aimed to provide drinking water and irrigation systems for 150,000 people when contractors and staffers were told in January to stop their work, according to internal documents seen by Reuters. Only 15% of the work had been completed at that point, according to a May 15 memo by DAI Global LLC, the contractor on the project. That has left open trenches and deep holes that pose acute risks for children and livestock and left $100,000 worth of pipes, fencing and other materials exposed at construction sites, where they could degrade or be looted, according to other correspondence seen by Reuters. USAID signage at those sites makes clear who is responsible for the half-finished work, several memos say. That could hurt the United States' reputation and potentially give a boost to extremist groups seeking fresh recruits in the region, according to a draft memo from the U.S. embassy in Nairobi to the State Department seen by Reuters. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab group based in Somalia has been responsible for a string of high-profile attacks in Kenya, including an assault on a university in 2015 that killed at least 147 people. 'The reputational risk of not finishing these projects could turn into a security risk,' the memo said. Damaging floods In Kenya's Taita Taveta, a largely rural county that has endured cyclical drought and flooding, workers had only managed to build brick walls along 220 metres of the 3.1-kilometre (1.9 mile) irrigation canal when they were ordered to stop, community leaders said. And those walls have not been plastered, leaving them vulnerable to erosion. 'Without plaster, the walls will collapse in heavy rain, and the flow of water will lead to the destruction of farms,' said Juma Kobo, a community leader. The community has asked the Kenyan government and international donors to help finish the job, at a projected cost of 68 million shillings ($526,000). In the meantime, they plan to sell the cement and steel cables left on site, Kobo said, to raise money to plaster and backfill the canal. The county government needs to find 'funds to at least finish the project to the degree we can with the materials we have, if not complete it fully,' said Stephen Kiteto Mwagoti, an irrigation officer working for the county. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The Kenyan government did not respond to a request for comment. For Kibachia, who has lived with flooding for years, help cannot come soon enough. Three months after work stopped on the project, her mud hut was flooded with thigh-deep water. 'It was really bad this time. I had to use soil to level the floor of my house and to patch up holes in the wall because of damage caused by the floods,' she said. 'Where can I go? This is home.'
USA Today
18-07-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Trump budget cuts could cost pharma industry billions in lost drug revenue, warns CBO
President Donald Trump's proposed budget cuts to the National Institutes of Health would eventually result in fewer drugs on the market, the U.S. Congressional Budget Office said on Friday. The Trump administration's 2026 budget proposal includes deep cuts for scientific research, including $18 billion in cuts from the NIH's funding, a 40% reduction. In a letter responding to a request from congressional Democrats, CBO Director Phillip Swagel said the nonpartisan agency estimates a hypothetical 10% cut in the NIH's funding of preclinical research would reduce the number of drug candidates for phase 1 clinical trials over 30 years, starting with one fewer drug in the first decade, nine in the second, and 20 in the third. "CBO estimated that a reduction in the NIH's funding of external preclinical research would ultimately decrease the number of new drugs coming to market by roughly 4.5 percent, or about 2 drugs per year," the letter said. Preclinical research is the earliest stage of drug development, so the effects of funding cuts take longer to kick in. CBO expects cuts to clinical trials, in which drugs are further along in development, to also reduce the number of new drugs and to take effect sooner, but did not provide an analysis. In case you missed it: Will Trump's big tax bill help or hurt you? Why it could depend on your income Congressional Democrats had also asked CBO to analyze the implications of reducing NIH funding by 35%-38% but the office said it had not determined whether historical data could reliably be used to do so. CBO said it was updating its drug development model to address congressional interest in additional budget scenarios. Democrats also asked the CBO to analyze the effects of a nine-month increase in U.S. Food and Drug Administration review times of new drug applications. The Trump administration has carried out mass layoffs at the agency, initially firing 3,500 employees, though some have since been rehired. CBO found such a delay would lead to three fewer drugs entering the market in the first decade, and 10 fewer in both the second and third decades. Delays in reviews would probably affect drug development in additional ways that CBO did not assess, the office said. The Trump administration is proposing a $6.8-billion budget request for the FDA in 2026, representing a cut of around 5.5% from this year. Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Rod Nickel
Washington Post
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Mamdani comes to D.C. to win over congressional Democrats
Politics Mamdani comes to D.C. to win over congressional Democrats July 16, 2025 | 11:39 PM GMT Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, made his case to congressional Democrats at a fireside chat hosted by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) on July 16.
Axios
23-06-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Jeffries fumes at Trump for blindsiding Congress on Iran strikes
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Monday flashed some fury with the Trump administration for sidelining Congress on its strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. Why it matters: Jeffries notably did not weigh in on a measure to limit Trump's ability to carry out such attacks unilaterally and signaled that evidence the administration presents to Congress will be key. Jeffries said in a letter to fellow Democrats that all House members will be briefed Tuesday afternoon about the situation in the Middle East. "We haven't gotten an initial briefing from the White House," he said at a subsequent press conference. "All we received from the White House is a so-called 'courtesy call' ... I asked for a Gang of Eight briefing, it has yet to occur!" What we're hearing: Behind closed doors, Jeffries is "very" frustrated about Congressional Democrats being bypassed, a senior House Democrat told Axios on the condition of anonymity to provide insights on sensitive internal dynamics. He wasn't the only one: Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) received a cursory notification ahead of the strikes similar to the "courtesy call" Jeffries described, Axios' Stephen Neukam reported. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrats on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, were also not briefed before the attack, even as their Republican counterparts were. The other side: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a Fox News appearance that Jeffries "couldn't be reached" prior to the strikes "but he was briefed after." She added: "The White House was not obligated to call anyone because the president was acting within his legal authority under Article II of the Constitution ... we gave these calls as the courtesy." House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters that Trump "made an evaluation that the danger was imminent enough to take his authority as commander-in-chief and make that decision." Johnson said it is not an "appropriate time" for a vote on the war powers resolution — which is supported by dozens of House Democrats but just one Republican — and that he "doesn't think it is necessary." Zoom out: Jeffries is making the case that the White House ran afoul of the Constitution by not seeking congressional authorization and now needs to prove that Iran posed an "imminent threat" to the U.S. or its military forces. "Not a scintilla of evidence to date has been presented, that I have seen, to justify the notion that there was an imminent threat. ... If the administration has evidence to the contrary, come up to present it," he said. Jeffries said he hopes the briefing on Tuesday will be "comprehensive," and said it "will be probed, it will be tested, it will be aggressively pushed back against, and then we'll see what the outcome is." What to watch: The war powers measure is "privileged," meaning its authors, Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), can in, theory, force a vote on it without Johnson's approval. But Johnson is reportedly considering slipping language into an unrelated procedural measure that would effectively shut down a forced vote. Jeffries said he hadn't "taken a look at" the war powers measure, but said Johnson's potential side-stepping maneuver is "outrageous." "House Republican leaders are going to explain that to their own base, which also does not want to see another dangerous, potentially disastrous, Middle Eastern war," he said.
San Francisco Chronicle
02-06-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Supreme Court won't hear challenge to Maryland assault weapons ban
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear a challenge to a state ban on assault weapons, semiautomatic rifles that are popular among gun owners and have also been used in multiple mass shootings. The justices turned down a case against a Maryland law passed after the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut that killed 20 children and six adults. The shooter was armed with an AR-15, one of the firearms commonly referred to as an assault weapon. Three conservative justices, however, publicly noted that they would have taken the case, and a fourth said he is skeptical that such bans are constitutional, indicating the court could soon take another look at the issue. Several states have similar measures, and Congressional Democrats have also supported the concept. The challengers had argued that people have a constitutional right to own the firearms like the AR-15. The case comes two years after the high court handed down a landmark ruling that expanded Second Amendment rights and spawned challenges to firearm laws around the country. Ten states and the District of Columbia have similar laws, covering major cities like New York and Los Angeles. Congress allowed a national assault weapons ban to expire in 2004.
