A dearth of information has been disclosed about the agreements, fueling speculation that the “America First” approach to foreign aid is exploitative. The Trump administration has spent the better part of a year quietly negotiating agreements with poorer nations as it seeks to scale back and reimagine U.S. foreign assistance for efforts like HIV and … [Read more…]
One of the first acts by the second Trump administration was the complete gutting of the US Agency for International Development, a workforce of more than 10,000 people that had administered humanitarian aid and public health support to nations around the world since 1961. Thousands of jobs were immediately slashed by Elon Musk’s para-governmental Department … [Read more…]
Depositions offer insight into what Elon Musk’s group was up to. Members describe a club-like atmosphere in which they pushed for grant and contract cancellations across the government with little oversight. Members of the U.S. DOGE Service spoke regularly over Signal, the encrypted chat service that can auto-delete messages. They were informally recruited by people … [Read more…]
Feb 26 – Democratic Republic of Congo and the United States have agreed a $1.2 billion strategic health partnership, the two governments said in a joint statement on Thursday. The partnership covers the period of 2026-2031, the statement said. It includes $900 million in targeted U.S. government assistance and $300 million in “progressively increased domestic … [Read more…]
The cuts in US foreign aid have probably caused hundreds of thousands of people to die. My colleagues Justin Sandefur and Charles Kenny estimated between 500,000 and 1,000,000 in 2025 alone. But so far these estimates have been projections based on logic and historical patterns. Real-time data on what is actually going on has been … [Read more…]
Chrystina Russell flew from Burundi to tell us what nonprofit leaders need to hear right now: how Village Health Works absorbed a $1.4 million USAID funding gap — and didn’t blink. MORE
The State Department will let lifesaving projects expire because “there is no strong nexus between the humanitarian response and U.S. national interests,” according to an internal email. A year after the Trump administration began the dismantlement of USAID, it is initiating a new round of significant cuts to foreign assistance. This time, programs that survived … [Read more…]
Leaked draft of $1bn memorandum of understanding reveals mandatory targets, sharing of data, and reported access to mining concessions. The US has been accused of “shameless exploitation” over a health financing agreement with Zambia worth more than $1bn (£740m), amid warnings that the country is getting a raw deal from the Trump administration. A leaked … [Read more…]
FROM USAID February 18, 2026 Dear USAID Contractor/Recipient, The Agency’s Chief Acquisition Officer (CAO) has approved a class deviation to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), revising the audit threshold applicable to termination settlement proposals (TSPs) for certain contracts terminated in response to Executive Order 14169, Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid or Executive Order … [Read more…]
Join ProPublica journalists for a conversation about the dismantling of U.S. foreign aid worldwide. Feb 114:00pm 5:00pm EST Virtual RSVP Within months of taking office, Trump officials eradicated the world’s largest humanitarian agency, slashing thousands of lifesaving programs and putting millions of lives at risk. While many news organizations covered these developments, no one reported on the … [Read more…]