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Miami Herald
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Dictators win as Trump cuts aid to human rights groups in Cuba, Venezuela
The dictators of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua are breathing more easily these days. Human rights groups and independent media in their countries are being decimated, courtesy of President Trump's massive foreign aid cuts to pro-democracy groups abroad. In the wake of Trump's July 18 law slashing $9 billion from foreign aid and public broadcasting, many pro-democracy groups in Latin America are drastically downsizing. Some are considering shutting down altogether, activists tell me. Trump's budget cuts stripped $8 billion from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and other organizations that provided foreign assistance. Nearly half of that —$4 billion— had funded international organizations and pro-democracy groups, countering China and Russia's outsized cultural and political propaganda programs in developing countries. If you think that America is spending too much on foreign aid to promote democracy, think again. Trump's recently passed 'Big Beautiful' law injects $170 billion in new funds —over 4,000% more— to arrest and imprison undocumented immigrants. That includes $45 billion earmarked for immigration detention centers — critics call them concentration camps — to keep mostly hard-working undocumented people who have committed no serious crimes. Many human rights groups in Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, El Salvador and other countries are now facing 'an existential threat' because of U.S. budget cuts, says Juan Pappier, Latin America director at the Human Rights Watch advocacy group. Much of this aid flowed through the International Republican Institute (IRI), a nonprofit group linked to the Republican Party. But since the start of Trump's second term, the IRI has had to suspend 92 of 95 programs to defend democracy in authoritarian countries, the Miami Herald reported in March. About 85% of the IRI's staff have been laid off, and all of its 64 overseas offices have been closed, according to On Wednesday, the Republican-led House Appropriations Committee approved legislation that could restore some of the foreign aid programs that Trump wants to defund, but the scope and fate of that congressional effort is still unclear. Laritza Diversent, the U.S.-based executive director of CubaLex, one of Cuba's best-known human rights groups, told me that 'there will be a major weakening of human rights organizations that are operating in Cuba' as U.S. foreign aid dwindles. Her own group, which gathers data on political prisoners and provides them with legal help, has had to layoff some employees and cut 50% of its contract workers, Diversent told me. Justicia 11J, another Cuban human rights group, has had to cancel presentations before the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to denounce the plight of Cuban prisoners. The group helps hundreds of political prisoners arrested during the massive demonstrations of June 11, 2021. Camila Rodriguez, head of Justicia 11, told me the group was informed earlier this year it would lose 90% of its U.S. funding for a key project. Later, they were told some aid would be restored, but it's not clear how much, or when. Right now, Justicia 11J is operating with a skeleton crew that is doing all of its work on a voluntary basis, Rodriguez said. This has caused 'a significant decrease in the production and dissemination of content aimed at documenting and denouncing systematic violations of the right to peaceful protest in Cuba,' she added. A similar crisis is hitting the Voice of America and independent news websites in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, El Salvador and other countries, as their U.S. funds are being cut. In many countries, these websites are the only sources of critical news, and are competing against Russia's state-run Russia Today en Español and Telesur regional TV network, funded by the Venezuelan and Cuban regimes. 'Trump's budget cuts to USAID and the Voice of America are manna from heaven for China and Russia,' Arturo Sarukhan, a former Mexican ambassador to the United States, told me. He added, 'This withdrawal of U.S. soft power, the abandonment of public diplomacy, and the capacity to counter Russian propaganda in Latin America is an own goal for the United States.' I agree. Worst of all, these cuts to support human rights groups and independent media in Latin America amounts to peanuts compared to the astronomical sums the Trump administration plans to spend arresting mostly hard-working immigrants who are doing jobs that most Americans won't do. Indeed, the dictators of Russia and China, and their allies in Latin America, will have a field day, thanks to Trump's abrupt end to the post-World War II bipartisan consensus that promoting democracy abroad is a moral duty, and a smart thing to do to keep the U.S. safe. Don't miss the 'Oppenheimer Presenta' TV show on Sundays at 9 pm E.T. on CNN en Español. Blog:
Fox News
21 hours ago
- Business
- Fox News
Trump signs $9B rescissions package into law, revoking funding for foreign aid, NPR
President Donald Trump signed into law his roughly $9 billion rescissions package to scale back already approved federal funds for foreign aid and public broadcasting on Thursday, after both chambers of Congress approved the legislation earlier in the month, sources familiar to the matter have confirmed. The signing marks another legislative victory for the Trump administration just two weeks after the president signed into law his massive tax and domestic policy measure, dubbed the "big, beautiful bill." The rescissions package pulls back nearly $8 billion in funding Congress already approved for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), a previously independent agency that provided impoverished countries aid and offered development assistance. However, the Trump administration has faced layoffs and has been absorbed into the State Department amid concerns from the Trump administration that the organization did not advance U.S. core interests. The rescissions package also pulls more than $1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) that provides federal funding for NPR and PBS. The House previously approved its version of the rescissions package in June, and voted on the final version of the measure early on Friday after the Senate narrowly approved the measure by a 51-48 margin early on the morning of July 17. Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted alongside Democrats to oppose the package. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said that the measure aligned with other priorities to eradicate waste, fraud and abuse within the federal government and is a step in the right direction. "I appreciate all the work the administration has done in identifying wasteful spending," Thune said in a speech ahead of the vote. "And now it's time for the Senate to do its part to cut some of that waste out of the budget. It's a small but important step toward fiscal sanity that we all should be able to agree is long overdue." Meanwhile, Democrats have said that the cuts to foreign aid are a win for China and Russia, and that the package puts national security at risk. Additionally, Democrats argue Republicans' employment of rescissions sets a dangerous precedent that could jeopardize a host of programs down the line. "If Republicans slash more American aid, it will create a dangerous vacuum that the Chinese Communist Party will continue to eagerly fill," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on July 15 on the Senate floor. "They are using pocket rescissions to poison the bipartisan appropriations process, to break the law to steal funds that Congress appropriated, and they're doing it at a party-line vote," Schumer said. "Worse, they're letting Donald Trump decide for himself which programs to defund, and that puts everything at risk – healthcare, education, food assistance, public health. Everything – everything – becomes at risk. That is what happens if a package like this is allowed to become law." Although Trump previously attempted to advance a rescissions package in 2018 that also targeted foreign aid and public broadcasting funds during his first term, it failed to gain support in the Senate after Collins and then-Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., voted against it. The last time Congress approved a rescissions package was in 1999.
Daily News Egypt
5 days ago
- Business
- Daily News Egypt
Egypt to prepare investment package for U.S. companies, says PM
Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly has directed his government to prepare a package of investment opportunities to be presented to U.S. companies, as part of efforts to strengthen economic cooperation between the two countries. The directive came during a meeting on Sunday to follow up on efforts to enhance Egypt-U.S. economic ties, according to a cabinet statement. Madbouly stressed the government's interest in bolstering the strategic and historical ties between the two nations and its keenness to overcome any obstacles to joint cooperation. He noted that there are many promising opportunities available for American companies, given the significant incentives the Egyptian government offers to foreign investors. The meeting was attended by the ministers of planning, foreign affairs, and investment, while the minister of industry and transport participated via video conference. Minister of Industry and Transport, Kamel al-Wazir, reviewed investment opportunities that have been presented to U.S. companies in sectors including ports, maritime transport, and industrial zones. Minister of Planning and Economic Cooperation, Rania Al-Mashat, discussed development cooperation with the United States, including projects funded through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Foreign Minister Badr Abdel-Aty and Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade Hassan El-Khatib also reviewed their respective ministries' efforts to support bilateral ties, trade, and U.S. investment in Egypt. At the conclusion of the meeting, Madbouly instructed all relevant authorities to coordinate on preparing the set of promising investment opportunities and to follow up on presenting them to American companies to enhance U.S. investments in Egypt.
The Hill
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
A postmortem on the dismantling of USAID
On the first day of his second term, President Trump issued an executive order suspending all foreign aid expenditures, except for those providing emergency and military assistance. On March 10, the administration cancelled 83 percent of the programs run by the U.S. Agency for International Development. USAID, Trump declared, had been 'run by a bunch of radical lunatics.' Elon Musk opined that the agency was 'a criminal organization.' Social media outlets spread false allegations that USAID had spent $60 million on condoms for South Africa. On May 21, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 'No one has died because of USAID.' Lawmakers presented him with credible evidence that he was wrong. By the middle of the year, 94 percent of USAID's 4,500 employees, many of them living overseas, had been laid off. As of July 1, Rubio announced, 'USAID will officially cease to implement foreign assistance.' The State Department would only implement existing and new foreign aid programs if they advanced the administration's 'America First' agenda by privileging 'trade over aid, opportunity over dependency, investment over assistance.' The dismantling of USAID has already had a negative impact on the lives of tens of millions of poor and vulnerable people in some 130 countries. And the evisceration of USAID is undermining our national interest. Established in 1961, USAID became the world's leading donor of humanitarian, economic development and democracy-promoting programs. The organization has had considerable success in alleviating poverty and malnutrition, decreasing the spread of infectious diseases and increasing access to safer drinking water and sanitation. Its programs helped mitigate the effect of natural disasters and achieve substantial reductions in mortality rates across all ages and causes, death rates from HIV/AIDS, malaria and tropical diseases. Working with non-government organizations, USAID provided educational opportunities for women in Afghanistan and supported independent media committed to correcting disinformation campaigns by state-controlled outlets in Eastern Europe. Although MAGA Republicans have denounced USAID as 'woke,' the agency's largest implementing partner in 2024 was Catholic Charities. In the last four years, Samantha's Purse, founded by Franklin Graham, the son of evangelical minister Billy Graham, received $90 million in USAID funds. A study recently published in The Lancet, the respected scientific and medical journal, estimates that the implications of dismantling USAID could 'reverberate for decades,' with an impact 'similar in scale to a global pandemic or a major armed conflict.' By 2030, an additional 14 million people, 4 million of them children under five years old, could die. 630,000 of those deaths would be associated with dramatic reductions in staff, medications and treatment through PEPFAR, President George W. Bush's signature foreign aid initiative. USAID is a paradigmatic example of the exercise of 'soft power,' a difficult to quantify strategy of exerting national influence through trade, economic assistance, educational exchanges, public-private partnerships and relationships with business and political leaders. China had already strengthened its global ties by investing $679 billion — more than nine times the foreign aid expenditures of the U.S. — between 2013 and 2021 to construct or repair roads, railways, airports and energy and digital infrastructure. It began filling the soft power void created by the dismantling of USAID almost immediately in Nepal and Colombia. U.S. foreign aid, moreover, is relatively inexpensive. In 2023, total expenditures for non-military foreign aid were $71.9 billion, 1.2 percent of the $6.1 trillion federal budget. USAID was responsible for $43.5 billion of the $71.9 billion. The U.S., it's worth noting, gives a relatively low percentage of its GDP in aid compared to most other wealthy nations. As Trump and Rubio surely know, a substantial majority of Americans do not understand the aims and achievements of foreign aid or know how much the U.S. spends on it. On average, Americans believe that foreign aid constitutes 31 percent of the federal budget. About 70 percent of Americans (and 9 out of 10 Republicans) think Washington spends too much money assisting other countries. Trump and Rubio are not attempting to enlighten them. The dismantling of USAID provides a teachable moment. Referring to PEPFAR, former President Bush recently asked and answered a rhetorical question: 'Is it in our national interest that 25 million people who would have died now live? I think it is.' Providing humanitarian assistance is the right thing for the wealthiest country in the world to do, whether or not there's an immediate payoff. But it is also one of many ways, in our increasingly interconnected and interdependent planet, in which a robust USAID served — and might again serve — America's national interest.
Yomiuri Shimbun
6 days ago
- Politics
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Trump's Funding Cut Stalls Water Projects, Increasing Risks for Millions
TAVETA, Kenya, July 19 (Reuters) – 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 canceled 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. 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. BIPARTISAN SUPPORT 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. 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. 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. THE PERILS OF FETCHING WATER 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. 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. 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 meters of the 3.1-kilometer (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 Kubo, 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, Kubo 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. 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.'
