WASHINGTON: The Trump administration has signed the first in what are expected to be dozens of “America First” global health funding agreements that will prioritize combating infectious diseases in countries deemed to be aligned with the president’s broader foreign policy goals and positions.
The five-year, $2.5 billion agreement with Kenya was signed Thursday by Kenyan President William Ruto and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to replace a patchwork of previous health agreements that had traditionally been run by the US Agency for International Development for decades until the Trump administration dismantled it earlier this year.
The elimination of USAID as a separate agency sparked widespread criticism and concern in the global health community as its immediate impact resulted in the defunding of hundreds of programs focused on the developing world, including cuts to maternal and child care, nutrition and anti-HIV/AIDS programs.
Rubio said the agreement with Kenya “aims to strengthen US leadership and excellence in global health while eliminating dependency, ideology, inefficiency, and waste from our foreign assistance architecture.” He also praised Kenya for its role in leading and contributing to the international stabilization force working to combat powerful gangs in Haiti.
Ruto lauded the agreement and said Kenya would continue to play a role in Haiti as the gang suppression force transitions to a broader operation.
Details of the deal with Kenya
Under the health deal with Kenya, the US will contribute $1.7 billion of the total amount, with the Kenyan government covering the remaining $850 million. The agreement focuses on preventing and treating diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis with an emphasis on faith-based medical providers, although all clinics and hospitals enrolled in Kenya’s health insurance system will be eligible to receive funding, according to US officials.
“This cooperation framework is quite a departure from the past and will have a lasting impact on health for all,” said Ouma Oluga, Kenya’s principal secretary for medical services.
Family planning programs that comply with US restrictions on the provision of abortion services will also be eligible, according to Jeremy Lewin and Brad Smith, two State Department officials involved in the negotiations. They said the agreement would not discriminate against gay and transgender people or sex workers.
A number of other African countries are expected to sign similar agreements with the US by the end of the year, according to the officials, although two of the continent’s most populous nations — Nigeria and South Africa — are not expected to be among that group due to political differences with Trump, according to Lewin and Smith.
However, discussions on a deal with Nigeria are underway despite the “very significant concerns the president has around the persecution of Christians,” Lewin said. He added that if a health agreement is reached with Nigeria, the administration is hopeful it would “enhance” efforts to address those concerns.
Dismantling USAID had repercussions across Africa, shutting down programs that fought disease and hunger and supported maternal health, and even some that tackled extremism and promoted democracy. It also put thousands of health workers out of jobs because their salaries were funded by US aid.
The impact faced by two African countries is not expected to see such deals
Sub-Saharan Africa’s battle against HIV might be set back years, experts warned, after the closing of USAID affected the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a bipartisan program launched by the administration of George W. Bush in 2003 and which is credited with saving around 25 million lives across the globe.
Africa is the main focus for PEPFAR, and South Africa — which has the highest number of people living with HIV in the world — had relied on USAID and PEPFAR for more than $400 million a year in help to roll out life-saving antiretroviral drugs to some of its more than 5 million people receiving treatment. American taxpayer money funded nearly 20 percent of South Africa’s HIV program — the biggest in the world — until the Trump administration cut or froze the funding.
Experts at UNAIDS — the UN agency tasked with fighting the virus globally — warned in July that up to 4 million people worldwide would die if funding wasn’t reinstated.
After stinging criticism that defunding PEPFAR would cost lives, the Trump administration moved to restore some help, including a $115 million grant for South Africa’s HIV program that should help fund it until at least March.
However, Trump has said he will cut all financial assistance to South Africa over his widely rejected claims that it is violently persecuting its Afrikaner white minority.
Trump has also voiced extreme displeasure with Nigeria, another country hard hit by HIV/AIDS, over allegations of discrimination and violence targeting the Christian community.
Nigeria’s health sector was propped up by the international aid, chiefly by USAID, which poured nearly $4 billion into the country’s health care system between 2020 and 2025.
The Nigerian health system had become fragile due to years of underinvestment, with the federal government budgeting an average of 4 percent to 5 percent of the national budget to health for its nearly 220 million people in one of the world’s fastest-growing populations.
The sudden cut deepened the crisis, where aid-funded programs had created critical lifelines for millions of people.
US and Kenya sign first of what are expected to be dozens of ‘America First’ global health deals
https://arab.news/yz23g
US and Kenya sign first of what are expected to be dozens of ‘America First’ global health deals
- Deal focuses on preventing and treating diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis with an emphasis on faith-based medical providers
- All clinics and hospitals enrolled in Kenya’s health insurance system will be eligible to receive funding, according to US officials
Putin says there are points he can’t agree to in the US proposal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine
- He emphasized that Russia will fulfill the goals it set and take all of the eastern Donetsk region
- “All this boils down to one thing: Either we take back these territories by force, or eventually Ukrainian troops withdraw,” he said
Russian President Vladimir Putin says some proposals in a US plan to end the war in Ukraine are unacceptable to the Kremlin, indicating in comments published Thursday that any deal is still some ways off.
US President Donald Trump has set in motion the most intense diplomatic push to stop the fighting since Russia launched the full-scale invasion of its neighbor nearly four years ago. But the effort has once again run into demands that are hard to reconcile, especially over whether Ukraine must give up land to Russia and how it can be kept safe from any future aggression by Moscow.
Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law Jared Kushner planned to meet later Thursday with the Ukrainian delegation led by Rustem Umerov following the Americans’ discussions with Putin at the Kremlin, but there was no immediate confirmation whether that meeting took place.
The meeting at the Shell Bay Club, a golf property developed by Witkoff in Hallandale Beach, was tentatively set to begin at 5 p.m. EST, according to an official familiar with the logistics. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly because the meeting has not yet been formally announced and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Putin said his five-hour talks Tuesday with Witkoff and Kushner were “necessary” and “useful,” but also “difficult work,” and some proposals were unacceptable.
Speaking to the India Today television channel before he landed Thursday in New Delhi for a state visit, Putin said the American proposals discussed at the Kremlin meeting were based on earlier discussions between Russia and the US, including his meeting with Trump in Alaska in August, but also included new elements.
“We had to go through practically every point, which is why it took so much time,” he said. “It was a meaningful, highly specific and substantive conversation. Sometimes we said, ‘Yes, we can discuss this, but with that one we cannot agree.’“
Trump said Wednesday that Witkoff and Kushner came away from the marathon session confident that Putin wants to find an end to the war. “Their impression was very strongly that he’d like to make a deal,” he added.
Putin said the initial US 28-point peace proposal was trimmed to 27 points and split into four packages. He refused to elaborate on what Russia could accept or reject, and none of the other officials involved offered details of the talks.
The Russian leader praised Trump’s peace efforts, noting that “achieving consensus among conflicting parties is no easy task.”
“To say now what exactly doesn’t suit us or where we could possibly agree seems premature, since it might disrupt the very mode of operation that President Trump is trying to establish,” Putin said.
He emphasized that Russia will fulfill the goals it set and take all of the eastern Donetsk region. “All this boils down to one thing: Either we take back these territories by force, or eventually Ukrainian troops withdraw,” he said.
European leaders, left on the sidelines by Washington as US officials engage directly with Moscow and Kyiv, have accused Putin of feigning interest in Trump’s peace drive.
French President Emmanuel Macron met in Beijing with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, seeking to involve him in pressuring Russia toward a ceasefire. Xi, whose country has provided strong diplomatic support for Putin, did not say respond to France’s call, but said that “China supports all efforts that work toward peace.”
Russian barrages of civilian areas of Ukraine continued overnight into Thursday. A missile struck Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday night, wounding six people, including a 3-year-old girl, according to city administration head Oleksandr Vilkul.
The attack on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown damaged more than 40 residential buildings, a school and domestic gas pipes, Vilkul said.
A 6-year-old girl died in the southern city of Kherson after Russian artillery shelling wounded her the previous day, regional military administration chief Oleksandr Prokudin wrote on Telegram.
The Kherson Thermal Power Plant, which provides heat for over 40,000 residents, shut down Thursday after Russia pounded it with drones and artillery for several days, he said.
Authorities planned emergency meetings to find alternate sources of heating, he said. Until then, tents were erected across the city where residents could warm up and charge electronic devices.
Russia also struck Odesa with drones, wounding six people, while civilian and energy infrastructure was damaged, said Oleh Kiper, head of the regional military administration.
Overall, Russia fired two ballistic missiles and 138 drones at Ukraine overnight, officials said.
Meanwhile, in the Russia-occupied part of the Kherson region, two men were killed by a Ukrainian drone strike on their vehicle Thursday, Moscow-installed regional leader Vladimir Saldo said. A 68-year-old woman was also wounded in the attack, he said.
