One year ago, the Trump administration in the United States of America (US) issued a series of executive actions that upended global health and humanitarian programmes around the world, and severely damaged global cooperation and solidarity on these issues. Clinics shut their doors. Lifesaving medicines were stranded at ports. Health workers lost their jobs. The … [Read more…]
Email sent to diplomats by state department office’s new boss is labelled ‘racist’ after dismissing Africa as a priority US diplomats have been encouraged to “unabashedly and aggressively” remind African governments about the “generosity” of the American people, according to a leaked email sent to staff in the US state department’s Bureau of African Affairs … [Read more…]
As the Trump administration pledges to meet global health targets, it has terminated some of its best tools for doing so. BLANTYRE, Malawi—Earlier this year, McDonald Phiri crashed his bike near his home in southern Malawi. Laid up for months, the 49-year-old relied on an outreach worker to deliver the HIV prevention medicine that he … [Read more…]
A viewing and conversation on “Rovina’s Choice” You are cordially invited to join Representative Gregory W. Meeks, Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, for a viewing of the Oscar short-listed short documentary film “Rovina’s Choice,” a harrowing account of a mother’s efforts … [Read more…]
On January 24, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump halted all U.S. foreign aid, including funding for HIV services. This threw a global AIDS response built over more than two decades into immediate disarray. The administration has continued to sow chaos in the weeks and months since, allowing some services to resume, while erasing others completely. … [Read more…]
A Whistleblower’s Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded USAID In the months that followed, USAID became the first target of Elon Musk’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The mission to which Enrich had dedicated his career was being dismantled before his eyes—even the name of the agency was removed from the building’s … [Read more…]
In January 2025, Denise Mortimer ’93 was entering her 16th year working for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the face of American humanitarianism around the world for nearly 65 years. By summer, she and roughly 10,000 of her USAID colleagues had been dismissed—casualties of the Trump administration’s dismantling of the federal agency. MORE
Destroying taxpayer-funded contraceptive supplies threatens to fracture supply chains and wrest agency, health, and ultimately, life from women and girls in low- and middle-income countries. The U.S. Government announced plans this month to destroy more than $9.7 million worth of family planning supplies* intended for women and girls in low- and middle-income countries. These products, … [Read more…]
Donald Trump’s destruction of the civil service is a tragedy not just for the roughly 300,000 workers who have been discarded, but for an entire nation. The purge began late Friday night, four days after Donald Trump returned to the White House. Seventeen inspectors general—internal watchdogs embedded throughout the federal government—received emails notifying them of … [Read more…]
The Gates Foundation plans to spend a record $9 billion in 2026, focusing on global health and other key areas The Gates Foundation announced Wednesday that it will spend a record $9 billion in 2026, maximizing its spending in key areas such as global health. At the same time it will begin reducing the number … [Read more…]