Latest news with #JeremyLewin
Time of India
17-05-2025
- Health
- Time of India
Trump's USAID cuts leads to wastage of food for 3.5 million per month
When a major policy ends, it can ripple far beyond national borders, triggering global consequences. The sudden halt of USAID funding didn't just affect budgets; it disrupted lifesaving food chains, shuttered clinics, and silenced community programs that millions depended on for survival. Approximately 60,000 metric tons of US-funded food aid, valued at $98 million and sufficient to feed 3.5 million people for a month, remain unused in warehouses across Houston, Djibouti, Durban, and Dubai. These supplies, including high-energy biscuits and fortified grains, were intended for crisis-hit regions such as Gaza, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, abrupt funding cuts and administrative upheavals under the Trump administration have stalled their distribution, leaving the food at risk of expiration and potential disposal. Live Events The disruption stems from the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), with over 90% of its foreign aid contracts terminated and $60 billion in assistance slashed globally Jeremy Lewin, a 28-year-old appointee from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, now oversees the Office of Foreign Assistance, where internal proposals to release the stranded food await approval. The human cost of these cuts is profound. In northeastern Nigeria, Bulama, a mother who previously lost triplets to hunger, enrolled her underweight twins in a Mercy Corps program providing Plumpy'Nut—a therapeutic peanut paste. After USAID funding ceased in February, the program ended, and one of her twins died two weeks later. Navyn Salem, founder of Edesia Nutrition, which produces Plumpy'Nut, reports $13 million worth of the product sitting idle in her Rhode Island warehouse. She remains hopeful for a resolution to deliver the aid to those in need. Organizations like Action Against Hunger have been forced to halt over 50 projects in 20 countries, with reports of child deaths in the Democratic Republic of the Congo due to suspended operations. While some aid programs have been reinstated following internal and congressional pressure, many remain in limbo. The World Food Programme warns that the elimination of emergency food assistance in 14 countries could be a "death sentence" for millions facing extreme hunger.
Roya News
09-04-2025
- Business
- Roya News
US to restore foreign aid programs to Jordan, others
US President Donald Trump's administration has taken steps to restart at least six suspended foreign aid programs, according to sources familiar with the matter. The move came on Tuesday, when USAID Acting Deputy Administrator Jeremy Lewin and a senior official in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which operates under the oversight of billionaire Elon Musk — sent an internal email directing staff to reverse earlier decisions to shut down the programs. Sources told Reuters that the programs set to resume include World Food Programme (WFP) activities in Lebanon, Syria, Somalia, Jordan, Iraq, and Ecuador. The sources requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the decision.
Asharq Al-Awsat
07-04-2025
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Trump Administration Ends Some USAID Contracts Providing Lifesaving Aid across the Middle East
The Trump administration has notified the World Food Program and other partners that it has terminated some of the last remaining lifesaving humanitarian programs across the Middle East, a US official and a UN official told The Associated Press on Monday. The projects were being canceled 'for the convenience of the US Government' at the direction of Jeremy Lewin, a top lieutenant at Trump adviser Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency whom the Trump administration appointed to oversee and finish dismantling the US Agency for International Development, according to letters sent to USAID partners and viewed by the AP. About 60 letters canceling contracts were sent over the past week, including for major projects with the World Food Program, the world's largest provider of food aid, a USAID official said. An official with the United Nations in the Middle East said the World Food Program received termination letters for US-funded programs in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. Some of the last remaining US funding for key programs in Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan and the southern African nation of Zimbabwe also was affected, including for those providing food, water, medical care and shelter for people displaced by war, the USAID official said. The UN official said the groups that would be hit hardest include Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon. Also affected are programs supporting vulnerable Lebanese people and providing irrigation systems inside Syria, a country emerging from a brutal civil war and struggling with poverty and hunger. In Yemen, another war-divided country that is facing one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters, the terminated aid apparently includes food that has already arrived in distribution centers, the UN official said. Aid officials were just learning of many of the cuts Monday and said they were struggling to understand their scope. Another of the notices, sent Friday, abruptly pulled US funding for a program with strong support in Congress that had sent young Afghan women overseas for schooling amid Taliban prohibitions on women's education, said an administrator for that project, which is run by Texas A&M University. The young women would now face return to Afghanistan, where their lives would be in danger, according to that administrator, who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The Trump administration had pledged to spare those most urgent, lifesaving programs in its cutting of aid and development programs through the State Department and USAID. The Republican administration already has canceled thousands of USAID contracts as it dismantles USAID, which it accuses of wastefulness and of advancing liberal causes. The newly terminated contracts were among about 900 surviving programs that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had notified Congress he intended to preserve, the USAID official said. There was no immediate comment from the State Department.
South China Morning Post
07-04-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Trump administration ends some USAID contracts providing life-saving aid across Middle East
The Trump administration has notified the World Food Programme and other partners that it has terminated some of the last remaining life-saving humanitarian programmes across the Middle East, a US official and a UN official said on Monday. Advertisement The projects were being cancelled 'for the convenience of the US government' at the direction of Jeremy Lewin, a top lieutenant at Trump adviser Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) whom the Trump administration appointed to oversee and finish dismantling the US Agency for International Development, according to letters sent to USAID partners and viewed by Associated Press. About 60 letters cancelling contracts were sent over the past week, including for major projects with the World Food Programme, the world's largest provider of food aid, a USAID official said. An official with the United Nations in the Middle East said the World Food Programme received termination letters for US-funded programmes in Lebanon Jordan and Syria Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to comment publicly. Somalia , Some of the last remaining US funding for major programmes in Yemen Afghanistan and the southern African nation of Zimbabwe was also affected, including for those providing food, water, medical care and shelter for people displaced by war, the USAID official said. Advertisement The UN official said the groups that would be hit hardest include Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon. Also affected are programmes supporting vulnerable Lebanese people and providing irrigation systems inside Syria, a country emerging from a brutal civil war and struggling with poverty and hunger. In Yemen, another war-divided country that is facing one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters, the terminated aid apparently includes food that has already arrived in distribution centres, the UN official said.
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump administration ends some ‘lifesaving' USAid contracts, officials say
The Trump administration has notified the World Food Programme (WFP) and other partners that it has terminated some of the last remaining lifesaving humanitarian programmes across the Middle East, according to US and UN officials. The projects were being cancelled 'for the convenience of the US Government' at the direction of Jeremy Lewin, a top lieutenant at Trump adviser Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency whom the Trump administration appointed to oversee and finish dismantling the US Agency for International Development, according to a letter sent to USAid partners and viewed by the Associated Press. About 60 letters cancelling contracts were sent over the past week, including for major projects with the World Food Programme, the world's largest provider of food aid, a USAid official said. An official with the United Nations in the Middle East said the WFP received termination letters for Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. Some of the last remaining US funding for key programmes in Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan and the southern African nation of Zimbabwe were also affected, including those providing food, water, medical care and shelter for people displaced by war, the USAid official said. The Trump administration had pledged to spare those most urgent, lifesaving programmes in its cutting of aid and development programmes through the US State Department and USAid. The Trump administration already has cancelled thousands of USAid contracts as it dismantles USAid, which it accuses of wastefulness and of advancing liberal causes. The newly terminated contracts were among about 900 surviving programmes that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had notified Congress he intended to preserve, the USAid official said. There was no immediate comment from the State Department.
