Halt in US aid cripples global efforts to relieve hunger

Displaced Palestinians line up to receive food at a distribution centre in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 26, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP/File)
Short Url
Updated 07 February 2025
Follow

Halt in US aid cripples global efforts to relieve hunger

  • 500,000 tons of food aid in limbo in transit or storage — ex-USAID official
  • Aid organizations hobbled by loss of Famine Early Warning Systems Network

The Trump administration’s effort to slash and reshape American foreign aid is crippling the intricate global system that aims to prevent and respond to famine.
Struggling to manage hunger crises sweeping the developing world even before US President Donald Trump returned to the White House, the international famine monitoring and relief system has suffered multiple blows from a sudden cessation of US foreign aid.
The spending freeze, which Trump ordered upon taking office Jan. 20, is supposed to last 90 days while his administration reviews all foreign-aid programs. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said an exception allows emergency food assistance to continue.
But much of that emergency aid is at least temporarily halted as humanitarian organizations seek clarity about what relief programs are allowed to continue. Compounding the problem is Trump’s move this week to shut the US government’s top relief provider, the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
About 500,000 metric tons of food worth $340 million is in limbo, in transit or storage, as humanitarian organizations wait for US State Department approval to distribute it, said Marcia Wong, a former senior USAID official who has been briefed on the situation.
US-provided cash assistance intended to help people buy food and other necessities in Sudan and Gaza also has been halted, aid workers told Reuters. So has funding for volunteer-run community kitchens, an American-supported effort in Sudan to help feed people in areas inaccessible to traditional aid, these people said.
Humanitarian organizations have hit roadblocks in getting paid for emergency food operations. Questions about what programs have permission to continue have gone unanswered, because the people who normally field such inquiries – officials at USAID – have been placed on leave, at least six sources said.
The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), the US entity that produced regular food security alerts meant to prevent famine, also has been shut down. Its loss leaves aid organizations without a key source of guidance on where and how to deploy humanitarian relief
And the US government issued stop-work orders to two major manufacturers of nutritional supplements, diminishing the supply of life-saving food for severely malnourished children around the world.
“We are the one thing that nearly everyone agrees on – that little children who are starving and need emergency aid need help,” said Mark Moore, chief executive officer of Mana Nutrition of Georgia, one of the two suppliers ordered to stop producing supplements. “It is not hype or conjecture or hand wringing or even contested use of stats to say that hundreds of thousands of malnourished children could die without USAID.”
Shortly after this story was published, the US government notified Mana and the other manufacturer, Edesia Nutrition of Rhode Island, that the stop-work orders had been rescinded.
The US State Department did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

STOCKPILES ON HOLD

Conflict is driving large numbers of people into desperate hunger, and the US is the largest single donor of aid. It provided $64.6 billion in humanitarian aid over the last five years. That was at least 38 percent of the total such contributions recorded by the United Nations.
In 2023, almost 282 million people in 59 countries and territories experienced extreme food shortages that threatened their lives or livelihoods, according to the 2024 Global Report on Food Crises.
Even before the pause in US aid, the world’s famine-fighting system was under enormous strain, driven by conflict and political instability, as Reuters detailed in a series of reports last year. The halt in aid creates a two-pronged crisis for humanitarian organizations working to relieve severe hunger. It impairs the programs that aim to prevent mass starvation. More immediately, it hobbles programs meant to respond to crises and save lives.
Among the food aid in limbo around the world is almost 30,000 metric tons meant to feed acutely malnourished children and adults in famine-stricken Sudan, two aid workers there said. Some is sitting in hot warehouses, where it is in danger of spoiling, they said.
The food includes lentils, rice and wheat, one of the workers said – enough to feed at least 2 million people for a month. Some items have a quick expiration date and will be inedible by the end of Trump’s 90-day pause, this person said.
Aid groups are confused about which relief programs qualify for waivers from the spending freeze and if they’ll be able to obtain them – because most USAID staff have been placed on leave.
A LOST STEERING WHEEL
Longer term, the shuttering of FEWS NET stands to cripple the world’s ability to predict, prevent and respond to food insecurity crises.
Created by the US government in 1985 after devastating famines in East and West Africa, FEWS NET is funded by USAID and managed by Washington, D.C.-based Chemonics International. FEWS NET is charged with providing early warning to US policymakers about hunger crises that could require a humanitarian response. It uses data from federal agencies, scientists and other humanitarian organizations to produce a stream of reports on food security. USAID and humanitarian organizations used FEWS NET reports to decide where to send food aid.
Researchers who collect and analyze data on food insecurity and famine say FEWS NET is essential to world efforts to fight hunger. They say it can be more nimble and prolific than its UN-backed counterpart, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification system (IPC), a global partnership that reports on food insecurity in dozens of lands.
In most areas where it works, the IPC requires consensus on its findings among local government authorities and representatives of other humanitarian bodies. This can result in political attempts to influence its work and can delay and impede its efforts to alert the world to a looming crisis,a recent Reuters investigation found.
FEWS NET doesn’t face those consensus-building requirements, and so is faster and more efficient, researchers say. In 2024, FEWS NET produced more than 1,000 food insecurity outlooks, alerts and other reports covering more than 34 countries. The IPC published 71 reports in 33 countries.
The IPC declined to comment on FEWS NET’s demise. The “implications for the initiative remain unclear,” said Frank ​​Nyakairu, a spokesman for IPC.
On January 27, Chemonics, which manages FEWS NET, received a stop-work order from USAID. Two days later, FEWS NET’s website went dark, eliminating public access to thousands of reports funded by American taxpayers.
“Ending FEWS NET is sort of like taking the steering wheel off the car,” said Andrew Natsios, a professor at Texas A&M University who headed USAID from 2001 to 2006. “Even if the car is working fine, if there’s no steering wheel, you don’t know where the car is going.”
FEWS NET has been a critical player in assessing food insecurity in most of the world’s worst hunger crises. An important conduit of data to the IPC and the global humanitarian system, its reports offered strategic analysis about how conflict and other problems impact food insecurity in specific places. It also pushed the IPC to act when the UN-backed body’s work became bogged down by politics.
Without FEWS NET, “the single most important component of the IPC system is knocked out,” said Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation at Tuft University’s Fletcher School.
In December, Reuters reported that the Sudanese government maneuvered to delay an IPC famine determination in Darfur. FEWS NET, which had already concluded that famine was happening there, pushed for the IPC’s Famine Review Committee to convene, over the objections of Sudanese officials. In the end, the IPC committee agreed to announce that famine had struck Zamzam, a vast camp for internally displaced people in North Darfur.
But FEWS NET’s propensity to issue blunt assessments has also drawn fire in Washington. In December, FEWS NET published a report that projected famine by early 2025 in part of northern Gaza. After the report was issued, Jack Lew, US ambassador to Israel from October 2023 until January, wrote that it was “irresponsible” to issue such a finding. FEWS NET withdrew the report, stating that its alert was “under further review” and that it expected to update the report in January.
With the dissolution of its chief funder, USAID, FEWS NET employees say they are not optimistic about the organization resuming work.
Its apparent death leaves “a gaping hole” in reporting on humanitarian crises, said Chris Newton, an analyst specializing in early warning and food security at International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank. FEWS NET’s loss will hurt efforts to end famine in Sudan and prevent it in other hotspots and could lead to the collapse of a wide network of data providers, all crucial to understanding humanitarian risks globally, he said.
“Famine was disappearing from the world in the 2000s, and now its return will likely accelerate as we become increasingly blind to it, even as it becomes a more common tool of politics and war,” Newton said.


Canada’s new PM Carney will run in Ottawa area district as he seeks to join Parliament

Updated 59 min 49 sec ago
Follow

Canada’s new PM Carney will run in Ottawa area district as he seeks to join Parliament

  • Carney, sworn in as Canada’s 24th prime minister on March 14, said the government in a time of crisis needs a strong and clear mandate
  • The governing Liberals had appeared poised for a historic election defeat this year until Trump declared a trade war

TORONTO: New Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will run in an Ottawa area district as he seeks to join Parliament for the first time, the Liberal Party announced Saturday, a day before Carney triggers an early general election before a vote on April 28.
The election will take place against the backdrop of a trade war and sovereignty threats from US President Donald Trump.
The Liberal Party said Carney will run to represent the suburban Ottawa area of Nepean, noting in a social media post that Ottawa is where he raised his family and devoted his career to public service. He previously served as the head of Canada’s central bank and before that its deputy.
The election campaign for 343 seats or districts in the House of Commons will last 37 days.
The party that commands a majority in the House of Commons, either alone or with the support of another party, will form the next government and its leader will be prime minister.
Carney replaced Justin Trudeau, who announced his resignation in January, but remained in power until the Liberal Party elected a new leader on March 9 following a leadership race by the governing party.
Carney, sworn in as Canada’s 24th prime minister on March 14, has said the government in a time of crisis needs a strong and clear mandate.
The governing Liberals had appeared poised for a historic election defeat this year until Trump declared a trade war. Trump has repeatedly said that Canada should become the 51st US state and he acknowledged Friday that he has upended Canadian politics.
What Trump hasn’t said is that the almost daily attacks on Canada’s sovereignty have infuriated Canadians. That has led to a surge in Canadian nationalism that has bolstered Liberal poll numbers.
The opposition Conservatives hoped to make the election about Trudeau, whose popularity declined as food and housing prices rose and immigration surged. But after decades of bilateral stability, the vote is now is expected to focus on who is best equipped to deal with Trump.
Trump put 25 percent tariffs on Canada’s steel and aluminum and is threatening sweeping tariffs on all Canadian products — as well as all of America’s trading partners — on April 2.
Carney still hasn’t had a phone call with Trump and that might not happen now until after the election. Trump mocked Trudeau by calling him governor, but he has not yet mentioned Carney’s name.
Carney, 60, was the head of the Bank of Canada during the 2008 financial crisis. In 2013, he became the first noncitizen of the United Kingdom to run the Bank of England — helping to manage the impact of Brexit.
Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the Conservatives, is Carney’s main challenger. The party and Poilievre were heading for a huge victory in Canada’s federal election this year until Trump’s near-daily trade and annexation threats derailed them.
Poilievre, 45, for years the party’s go-to attack dog, is a career politician and firebrand populist who says he will put “Canada first.” He attacks the mainstream media and vows to defund Canada’s public broadcaster. His party announced that it won’t allow media onboard his campaign buses and planes.


Chinese to pursue ‘correct’ path of globalization

Updated 23 March 2025
Follow

Chinese to pursue ‘correct’ path of globalization

  • “China will firmly stand on the correct side of history, that of fairness and justice," Premier Li Qiang tells global business executives
  • The China Development Forum convenes amid a renewed trade war with the US under Trump threatening China’s booming exports

BEIJING: China’s number two leader told a gathering of business executives in Beijing on Sunday that the country would “adhere to the correct direction of economic globalization” in the face of “fragmentation.”
The China Development Forum convenes amid a renewed trade war with Washington, with the return of Donald Trump to the White House threatening China’s booming exports.
Beijing has been seeking to steer a shaky economy onto a more stable path since the end of the pandemic, particularly by boosting consumption.
“China will firmly stand on the correct side of history, that of fairness and justice, and act in a righteous manner amid the rough waters of the times,” Premier Li Qiang told the Chinese officials and global business executives.
China will “adhere to the correct direction of economic globalization, practice true multilateralism and strive to be a force for stability and certainty,” he added.
The Chinese premier said that “today, global economic fragmentation is intensifying,” adding that “instability and uncertainty are on the rise.”
Li’s speech came at the opening of the annual China Development Forum, attended this year by prominent business leaders including Apple CEO Tim Cook.
 


The Pentagon’s DEI purge: Officials describe a scramble to remove and then restore online content

Updated 23 March 2025
Follow

The Pentagon’s DEI purge: Officials describe a scramble to remove and then restore online content

  • Overall, tens of thousands of online posts that randomly mention dozens of key words, including “gay,” “bias” and “female” — have been delete
  • Overall, tens of thousands of online posts that randomly mention dozens of key words, including “gay,” “bias” and “female” — have been deleted

WASHINGTON: Every day over the past few weeks, the Pentagon has faced questions from angry lawmakers, local leaders and citizens over the removal of military heroes and historic mentions from Defense Department websites and social media pages after it purged online content that promoted women or minorities.
In response, the department has scrambled to restore a handful of those posts as their removals have come to light. While the pages of some well-known veterans, including baseball and civil rights icon Jackie Robinson, are now back up on Pentagon websites, officials warn that many posts tagged for removal in error may be gone forever.
The restoration process has been so hit or miss that even groups that the administration has said are protected, like the Tuskegee Airmen, the first Black military pilots who served in a segregated World War II unit, still have deleted pages that as of Saturday had not been restored.
This past week chief, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a video that mistaken removals will be quickly rectified. “History is not DEI,” he said, referring to diversity, equity and inclusion.
But due to the enormous size of the military and the wide range of commands, units and bases, there has been an array of interpretations of what to remove and how as part of the Pentagon directive to delete online content that promotes DEI. Officials from across the military services said they have asked for additional guidance from the Pentagon on what should be restored, but have yet to receive any.
The officials, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations, said, for example, they were waiting for guidance on whether military “firsts” count as history that can be restored. The first female Army Reserve graduate of Ranger School, Maj. Lisa Jaster, or the first female fighter pilot, Air Force Maj. Gen. Jeannie Leavitt, both had their stories deleted.

Maj. Lisa Jaster, center, the first Army Reserve female to graduate the Army's Ranger School, stands in formation with other Rangers during school graduation ceremony on Oct. 16, 2015, in Fort Benning, Gaeorgia. (AP Photo/File)

Some officials said their understanding was it did not matter whether it was a historic first. If the first was based on what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth found to be a disqualifying characteristic, such as gender or race, it had to go, they said.
One Army team has taken a very deliberate approach.
According to the officials, the team took down several major historical heritage sites that had many postings about women and various ethnic or racial groups. They are now going through them all and plan to rework and repost as much as possible on a new website focused on Army heroes. The process, the officials said, could take months.
Overall, tens of thousands of online posts that randomly mention dozens of key words, including “gay,” “bias” and “female” — have been deleted. Officials warn that the bulk of those images are gone for good. Even as complaints roll in, officials will be careful about restoring things unless senior leaders approve.
The officials described the behind-the-scenes process as challenging, frustrating and emotionally draining. Workers going through years of posts to take down mentions of historic accomplishments by women or minorities were at times reduced to tears or lashed out in anger at commanders directing the duty, the officials said.
Others were forced to pull down stories they were proud of and had worked on themselves. They were often confused about the parameters for removal once a key word was found, and they erred on the side of removal, according to the officials.
Not complying fully with the order was seen as dangerous because it could put senior military service leaders at risk of being fired or disciplined if an errant post celebrating diversity was left up and found. Officials said the department relied in large part on a blind approach — using artificial intelligence computer commands to search for dozens of those key words in online department, military and command websites.
If a story or photo depicted or included one of the terms, the computer program then added “DEI” into the web address of the content, which flagged it and led to its removal.
Purging posts from X, Facebook and other social media sites is more complicated and time intensive. An AI command would not work as well on those sites.
So military service members and civilians have evaluated social media posts by hand, working late into the night and on weekends to pore over their unit’s social media pages, cataloging and deleting references going back years. Because some civilians were not allowed to work on weekends, military troops had to be called in to replace them, as the officials described it.
The Defense Department is publicly insisting that mistakes will be corrected.
As an example, the Pentagon on Wednesday restored some pages highlighting the crucial wartime contributions of Navajo Code Talkers and other Native American veterans. That step came days after tribes condemned the removal. Department officials said the Navajo Code Talker material was erroneously erased,
The previous week, pages honoring a Black Medal of Honor winner and Japanese American service members were also restored.

Navajo Code Talker Thomas Begay salutes during the national anthem at the Arizona State Navajo Code Talkers Day celebration on Aug. 14, 2022, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/File)

The restorations represent a shift from early, adamant denials that any deletion of things such as the Enola Gay or prominent service members was happening at all. At least two images of the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II, are still missing.
“This is fake news and anyone with a pulse knows it!” the Defense Department’s new “Rapid Response” social media account asserted March 7. “We are NOT removing images of the Enola Gay or any other pictures that honor the legacy of our warfighters.”
Over time, the Pentagon has shifted its public response as more examples of deleted pages came to light.
On Thursday, Parnell acknowledged in a video posted online that: “Because of the realities of AI tools and other software, some important content was incorrectly pulled off line to be reviewed. We want to be very, very clear: History is not DEI. When content is either mistakenly removed, or if it’s maliciously removed, we continue to work quickly to restore it.”
But others have seen the widespread erasure of history.
“Most female aviator stories and photographs are disappearing— including from the archives. From the WASPs to fighter pilots, @AFThunderbirds to @BlueAngels — they’ve erased us,” Carey Lohrenz, one of the Navy’s first female F-14 Tomcat pilots, posted to X. “It’s an across the board devastating loss of history and information.” Among the webpages removed include one about the Women Air Service Pilots, or WASPs, the female World War II pilots who were vital in ferrying warplanes for the military, and the Air Force Thunderbirds.
Parnell, Hegseth and others have vigorously defended the sweeping purge despite the flaws.
“I think the president and the secretary have been very clear on this — that anybody that says in the Department of Defense that diversity is our strength is, is frankly, incorrect,” Parnell said during a Pentagon media briefing. “Our shared purpose and unity are our strength.”


After breaking fast, volunteers use Ramadan as an opportunity to give in Detroit

Updated 23 March 2025
Follow

After breaking fast, volunteers use Ramadan as an opportunity to give in Detroit

  • Daoud said the group’s efforts are emblematic of Islam’s emphasis on respecting and valuing resources such as food and matches Ramadan’s focus on “self-discipline and empathy toward those less fortunate”

DEARBORN, Michigan: After a nightly iftar meal with family members breaking fast together during Ramadan, Nadine Daoud noticed full pots and trays of untouched leftover food lining the shelves of her grandmother’s refrigerator. Too often, she felt the food was quickly forgotten and then wasted.
The observations inspired her 2017 creation of The Helping Handzzz Foundation that brings volunteers together each year during the Islamic holy month. They round up spare food from families in Dearborn — where nearly half the 110,000 residents are of Arab descent — and bring it to people without homes in neighboring Detroit.
Daoud said the group’s efforts are emblematic of Islam’s emphasis on respecting and valuing resources such as food and matches Ramadan’s focus on “self-discipline and empathy toward those less fortunate.”

The Helping Handzzz team goes through the same process six nights each week during the sacred month, taking off Sundays. (Photo/Instagram)

“Every family cooks a lot of food to end the night when you’re breaking your fast,” Daoud said. “And a lot of food gets left over. And we noticed that a lot of this food was just getting stored in the fridge and forgotten about the next day.
“What I decided to do was instead of sticking it in the fridge and forgetting about it or throwing it in the trash, I said, ‘Let me take it. I always see people on the corners. Let me help out and give it to them instead with a drink and a nice treat on the side.’“
One recent night, Helping Handzzz board members Hussein Sareini and Daoud Wehbi and four others enjoyed an iftar prepared by Sareini’s mother.
When the meal ended, several attendees said some of the daily prayers. Then, Wehbi hopped in Sareini’s truck, and they stopped at several area homes to pick up untouched dishes. From there, they drove to the parking lot of a nearby mosque, where Nadine Daoud and others organized the food.
A caravan of vehicles then visited several spots in Detroit where people without housing regularly can be found.
Board member Mariam Hachem approached a man bundled up in blankets and lying on the sidewalk.
“Hi, we have a meal for you,” she said. “We’re going to set it right here, OK?”
“OK,” came the response.
Other volunteers added bottled water and a sweet treat alongside the food container.
The Helping Handzzz team goes through the same process six nights each week during the sacred month, taking off Sundays. And it comes after going without food or water from sunrise to sunset.
Wehbi, 27, is a design engineer at Toyota. Sareini demolishes bathrooms and kitchens and rebuilds them as part of his residential remodeling business.
The 25-year-old Dearborn resident said he gladly stays out until 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. each day to put some “good out into the world.”
“It’s all about appreciating what you have,” he said.
Wehbi said it’s no coincidence he and his friends undertake their annual effort during Ramadan.
“It’s not just a ‘no food, no drink’ time,” he said. “It’s a lot about growing and coming together as a community and bettering ourselves and bettering each other.”

 


Trump targets lawyers in immigration cases, lawsuits against administration

Updated 23 March 2025
Follow

Trump targets lawyers in immigration cases, lawsuits against administration

  • The Trump administration has been hit with more than 100 lawsuits challenging White House actions on immigration, transgender rights and other issues since the start of the president’s second term

WASHINGTON: Legal advocacy groups sounded alarms on Saturday after US President Donald Trump threatened new actions against lawyers and law firms that bring immigration lawsuits and other cases against the government that he deems unethical.
In a memorandum to US Attorney General Pam Bondi late on Friday, Trump said lawyers were helping to fuel “rampant fraud and meritless claims” in the immigration system, and directed the Justice Department to seek sanctions against attorneys for professional misconduct.
The order also took aim at law firms that sue the administration in what Trump, a Republican, called “baseless partisan” lawsuits. He asked Bondi to refer such firms to the White House to be stripped of security clearances, and for federal contracts they worked on to be terminated.
Ben Wizner, a senior lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the new directive sought to “chill and intimidate” lawyers who challenge the president’s agenda. Trump has separately mounted attacks on law firms over their internal diversity policies and their ties to his political adversaries. “Courts have been the only institution so far that have stood up to Trump’s onslaught,” Wizner said. “Courts can’t play that role without lawyers bringing cases in front of them.”
The ACLU is involved in litigation against the administration over immigrant deportations, including the expulsion of alleged Venezuelan gang members.
The Trump administration has been hit with more than 100 lawsuits challenging White House actions on immigration, transgender rights and other issues since the start of the president’s second term. Legal advocacy groups, along with at least 12 major law firms, have brought many of the cases.
A White House spokesperson, Taylor Rogers, said “President Trump is delivering on his promise to ensure the judicial system is no longer weaponized against the American people.”
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the memorandum, which directed Bondi to assess lawyers and firms that brought cases against the government over the past eight years.
Law firm Keker, Van Nest & Peters, which is working with the ACLU in an immigrant rights case against the administration, said in a statement that it was “inexcusable and despicable” for Trump to attack lawyers based on their clients or legal work opposing the federal government.
Representatives from other prominent law firms that are representing clients in cases against Trump’s administration, including Hogan Lovells, Jenner & Block, Perkins Coie and WilmerHale, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump issued executive orders this month against law firms Perkins Coie and Paul Weiss, suspending their lawyers’ security clearances and restricting their access to government buildings, officials and federal contracting work.
The president also last month suspended security clearances of lawyers at Covington & Burling, in each case citing the firms’ past work for his political or legal opponents.
The Keker firm on Saturday called on law firms to sign a joint court brief supporting a lawsuit by Perkins Coie challenging the executive order against it.
Paul Weiss on Thursday struck a deal with Trump to rescind the executive order against it, pledging to donate the equivalent of $40 million in free legal work to support some of the administration’s causes such as support for veterans and combating antisemitism.
Lawyers are bound by professional ethics rules that require them to investigate allegations before filing lawsuits and not deceive the courts. Imposing disciplinary sanctions on lawyers who violate such rules falls on the court system, not federal prosecutors, though prosecutors can charge lawyers with criminal misconduct.
Some lawyers aligned with Trump faced professional discipline over claims that they violated legal ethics rules in challenging Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election win over Trump.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who later was an attorney for Trump, was disbarred in New York and in the District of Columbia over baseless claims he made alleging the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
Lawyers for Civil Rights, a legal advocacy group suing the administration over deportations, called Trump’s sanctions threat hypocritical in a statement to Reuters, saying Trump and his allies “have repeatedly thumbed their noses at the rule of law.”