Trump and Musk’s move to dismantle USAID ignites battle with Democratic lawmakers

Trump and Musk’s move to dismantle USAID ignites battle with Democratic lawmakers
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US Sen. Chris Van Hollen (R) and Rep. Jamie Raskin speak at a press conference outside of USAID headquarters on February 3, 2025 in Washington, DC, as Democrats push back against the Trump administration's move to dismantle America's aid agency. (Getty Images via AFP)
Trump and Musk’s move to dismantle USAID ignites battle with Democratic lawmakers
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Protesters gather outside of USAID headquarters on February 3, 2025 in Washington, DC, to protest the Trump administration's move to dismantle America's aid agency. (Getty Images via AFP)
Trump and Musk’s move to dismantle USAID ignites battle with Democratic lawmakers
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Protesters gather outside of USAID headquarters on February 3, 2025 in Washington, DC, to protest the Trump administration's move to dismantle America's aid agency. (Getty Images via AFP)
Trump and Musk’s move to dismantle USAID ignites battle with Democratic lawmakers
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This photo taken on May 3, 2015, shows a USAID officer watching as a US military C-17 cargo plane taxis to a stop at Katmandu's international airport. (AFP)
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Updated 04 February 2025
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Trump and Musk’s move to dismantle USAID ignites battle with Democratic lawmakers

Trump and Musk’s move to dismantle USAID ignites battle with Democratic lawmakers
  • USAID should have been shut “done a long time ago,” said Trump, whose freeze order on foreign aid in 120 countries has led thousands of people to lose their jobs
  • Created in 1961 at the height of the Cold War, USAID humanitarian programs had been credited for saving more than millions of lives worldwide
  • Democrats accuse Trump of causing a constitutional crisis and Elon Musk of acting like a fourth branch of government in the US

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration and billionaire ally Elon Musk's move to eradicate the agency that provides crucial aid that funds education and fights starvation, epidemic and poverty overseas, has sparked a showdown with congressional Democrats, who blasted the effort as illegal and vowed a court fight.
In one of the most dramatic efforts to push back on President Donald Trump’s bid to slash and reshape the federal government, some Democrats sought Monday to enter the headquarters of the US Agency for International Development. They were blocked by officers from even broaching the lobby, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was the acting administrator of the agency despite it being an independent body for six decades.
While Trump has spent the first three weeks of his new presidency making broad changes to the federal government, the fast-moving developments at USAID have emerged as a particularly controversial flashpoint with Democrats who argue it symbolizes the massive power Musk is wielding over Washington.
“Spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper,” Musk boasted on X.
In the space of a few weeks, in fact, much of the agency was dismantled — work and spending ordered stopped, leadership and staff gutted by furloughs, firings and disciplinary leaves, and the website taken offline. Lawmakers said the agency’s computer servers were carted away.

Trump told reporters Monday that shutting down USAID “should have been done a long time ago.” Asked whether he needs Congress to approve such a measure, the president said he did not think so.
Congressional Democrats, cheered by a few hundred supporters, vowed to act outside USAID headquarters, where federal officers and yellow tape blocked both employees and lawmakers from entering hours after Musk declared, “We’re shutting it down.”
“This is a constitutional crisis we are in today,” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy said.
Added Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin: “We don’t have a fourth branch of government called Elon Musk. And that’s going to become real clear.”
Showing the extraordinary power of Musk and his budget-slashing Department of Government Efficiency, thousands of USAID employees have been laid off and programs shut down around the world in the two weeks since Trump became president and imposed a sweeping freeze on foreign assistance.
The US is the world’s largest provider of humanitarian aid, and the moves have upended decades of US policy that put humanitarian, development and security assistance in the center of efforts to build alliances and counter adversaries such as China and Russia. Trump, Musk and Republicans in Congress have made the US foreign assistance program a special target, accusing it of waste and advancing liberal social programs.
The US spends less than 1 percent of its budget on foreign assistance, a smaller share overall than some other countries. Trump accused the Biden administration of fraud, without giving any evidence and only promising a report later on.
“They went totally crazy, what they were doing and the money they were giving to people that shouldn’t be getting it and to agencies and others that shouldn’t be getting it, it was a shame, so a tremendous fraud,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
Democrats push back
Lawmakers sought to enter USAID offices in Washington, saying they wanted to speak to any staffers remaining about the dismantling of the agency. Department of Homeland Security officers and men identifying themselves as USAID employees blocked them. “Elon Musk’s not here,” one told the lawmakers.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland called it an “illegal power grab” and said it was “a corrupt abuse of power that is going on.”
“It’s not only a gift to our adversaries, but trying to shut down the Agency for International Development by executive order is plain illegal,” he said.

Democrats said court challenges already were in the works and pledged to try to block approval of Trump’s State Department nominations until the shutdown is reversed. Democrats are in the minority in the House and Senate after last November’s elections, leaving them with reduced leverage.
Musk announced the closing of the agency early Monday as Rubio was out of the country on a trip to Central America.
Rubio told reporters in San Salvador that he was now the acting administrator of USAID but had delegated his authority to someone else. In a letter to lawmakers obtained by The Associated Press, Rubio designated Peter Marocco, a political appointee whose short stint at USAID in the first Trump administration generated unusual staff protests for pushing program cuts and investigations that ambassadors and other senior officials complained slowed work to a crawl.
In his remarks, Rubio stressed that some and perhaps many USAID programs would continue in the new configuration but that the switch was necessary because the agency had become unaccountable to the executive branch and Congress.
USAID’s work worldwide
Conservative Republicans have long sought to roll back USAID’s status as an independent agency, while Democrats traditionally back its status as an independent agency. President John F. Kennedy created USAID in 1961 at the height of the United States’ Cold War struggle with the Soviet Union, seeking a more efficient way to counter Soviet influence abroad through foreign assistance, and viewing the State Department as frustratingly bureaucratic at that.
The Trump freeze on foreign assistance and targeting of USAID, which oversees humanitarian, development and security programs in some 120 countries, has forced US and international companies to shut down tens of thousands of programs globally, leading to furloughs, layoffs and financial crises.
That includes an HIV/AIDS program started by Republican President George W. Bush credited with saving more than 20 million lives in Africa and elsewhere. Aid contractors spoke of millions of dollars in medication and other goods now stuck in port that they were forbidden to deliver.
Other programs that would shut down provided education to schoolgirls in Afghanistan under Taliban rule and monitored an Ebola outbreak spreading in Uganda. A USAID-supported crisis monitoring program, which was credited for helping prevent repeats of the 1980s famine in Uganda that killed up to 1.2 million people, has gone offline.
Other organizations have filed for bankruptcy or are facing it after being told USAID would not be paying its invoices for projects that have already been approved and implemented around the world.
Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said USAID is not just about saving other countries from starvation and disease. “There is a reason that USAID is an arm of American foreign policy, and it is because we understand that a stable world means a stable America,” he said.
Latest hit to USAID
USAID staffers said more than 600 additional employees had reported being locked out of the agency’s computer systems overnight. Those still in the system received emails saying that “at the direction of Agency leadership” the headquarters building “will be closed to Agency personnel on Monday, Feb. 3.” The agency’s website vanished Saturday without explanation.

Musk is leading an extraordinary civilian review of the federal government with Trump’s agreement. The day began with Musk announcing on a live session of X Spaces that he had spoken with Trump at length about the agency and “he agreed we should shut it down.”
“It became apparent that it’s not an apple with a worm it in,” Musk said in a live session on X Spaces early Monday. “What we have is just a ball of worms. You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It’s beyond repair.”
Since Trump took office, appointees brought in from his first term like Marocco placed more than 50 senior officials on leave for investigation without public explanation, gutting the agency’s leadership. When the agency’s personnel chief announced that the allegations against them were groundless and tried to reinstate them, he was placed on leave as well.
Over the weekend, the Trump administration placed two top security chiefs at USAID on leave after they refused to turn over classified material in restricted areas to Musk’s government-inspection teams, a current and a former US official said.
Musk’s DOGE earlier carried out a similar operation at the Treasury Department, gaining access to sensitive information including the Social Security and Medicare customer payment systems. The Washington Post reported that a senior Treasury official had resigned over Musk’s team accessing sensitive information.
 


Sudden US aid withdrawal risking millions of lives: UNAIDS chief

Sudden US aid withdrawal risking millions of lives: UNAIDS chief
Updated 4 sec ago
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Sudden US aid withdrawal risking millions of lives: UNAIDS chief

Sudden US aid withdrawal risking millions of lives: UNAIDS chief
GENEVA: The sudden halt to US foreign aid funding has been “devastating,” the UNAIDS chief said Monday, warning that without more funding, millions more will die and the global AIDS pandemic will resurge.
Without more funding, “there will be an additional... 6.3 million AIDS-related deaths” in the next four years, UNAIDS executive director Winnie Byanyima told reporters in Geneva, cautioning that “in the longer term, we see the AIDS pandemic resurging, and resurging globally.”

Mob ransacks Indian comedy venue after parody of politician

Mob ransacks Indian comedy venue after parody of politician
Updated 42 min 26 sec ago
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Mob ransacks Indian comedy venue after parody of politician

Mob ransacks Indian comedy venue after parody of politician
  • Kunal Kamra, one of India’s leading comics, is known for his acerbic commentary on Indian politics.
  • Latest performance included parody song referring to Eknath Shinde in the state government as a “traitor.”

MUMBAI, INDIA: A mob ransacked a club in India’s financial capital after a stand-up comedian ridiculed one of the city’s leading politicians from the stage, prompting a police investigation into the performer.
Kunal Kamra, one of India’s leading comics, is known for his acerbic commentary on Indian politics.
His Sunday performance in Mumbai included a parody song referring to Eknath Shinde, the number two figure in the state government, as a “traitor.”
Soon after the show finished, supporters from Shinde’s Shiv Sena party stormed The Habitat comedy venue and began wreaking havoc.
Footage widely shared on social media showed dozens of men throwing chairs, smashing light fittings and breaking apart paintings mounted on the wall.
At least 20 people were being sought in relation to the vandalism at the club, local media reported.
The Habitat said in a Monday social media post that it was shutting its doors until it determined the “best way to provide a platform for free expression” without putting the venue “in jeopardy.”
Police were attempting to locate Kamra after an official complaint was registered against him for making defamatory remarks.
Maharashtra state chief minister — and Shinde’s boss — Devendra Fadnavis said the comedian “should apologize” and that “insult of leaders cannot be tolerated.”
“Everyone has a right to perform stand-up comedy. But freedom should not be unrestrained behavior... Action will be taken against him as per the law,” The Indian Express quoted him as saying.
The “traitor” remark was a reference to Shinde’s decision to switch his political allegiance in 2022, precipitating a weeklong political crisis in the state that forced the resignation of the then-chief minister.
Kamra has yet to publicly comment on the incident, but the backlash against him is not the first time that an Indian comic has come under fire from supporters of politicians.
In 2021, Muslim comedian Munawar Faruqui was held in prison for more than a month after being accused of insulting Hindu gods and goddesses.
He later canceled three shows in Mumbai after a Hindu activist group threatened to set the venue on fire.
 


US trade officials to visit India for trade talks from Tuesday

US trade officials to visit India for trade talks from Tuesday
Updated 24 March 2025
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US trade officials to visit India for trade talks from Tuesday

US trade officials to visit India for trade talks from Tuesday
  • Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch will lead the group
  • President Trump’s plans to impose reciprocal tariffs from April 2 are causing alarm among Indian exporters

NEW DELHI: A delegation of officials from the United States will visit India from March 25 to 29 for trade talks with Indian officials, a US embassy spokesperson said on Monday.

Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch will lead the group. “This visit reflects the United States’ continued commitment to advancing a productive and balanced trade relationship with India,” the spokesperson said.

Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal spent nearly a week in the United States earlier this month where he held trade discussions, and as US President Donald Trump’s plans to impose reciprocal tariffs from April 2 causing alarm among Indian exporters. During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US last month, both nations agreed to work on the first phase of a trade deal by autumn 2025, with a target of reaching $500 billion in bilateral trade by 2030. India and the US are engaged in discussions to resolve tariff-related issues, and finalize a framework for a bilateral trade pact, Randhir Jaiswal, spokesman for India’s external affairs ministry, said last week.

“We value our ongoing engagement with the Government of India on trade and investment matters and look forward to continuing these discussions in a constructive, equitable, and forward-looking manner,” the US embassy spokesperson said.


UN seeks nearly $1 billion in aid for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

UN seeks nearly $1 billion in aid for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh
Updated 24 March 2025
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UN seeks nearly $1 billion in aid for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

UN seeks nearly $1 billion in aid for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh
  • UN and its more than 100 partners launching a 2025-26 Joint Response Plan for the Rohingya crisis
  • Around a million members of the persecuted and mostly Muslim minority live in squalid relief camps in Bangladesh

GENEVA: The UN said Monday it and partners were seeking nearly $1 billion to provide life-saving aid this year for some 1.5 million Rohingya refugees and their hosts in Bangladesh.
The United Nations said that it and more than 100 partners were launching a 2025-26 Joint Response Plan for the Rohingya crisis, amid “dwindling financial resources and competing global crises.”
The appeal, it said in a statement, “seeks $934.5 million in its first year to reach some 1.48 million people including Rohingya refugees and host communities.”
Around a million members of the persecuted and mostly Muslim minority live in squalid relief camps in Bangladesh, most of whom arrived after fleeing the 2017 military crackdown in neighboring Myanmar.
“In its eighth year, the Rohingya humanitarian crisis remains largely out of the international spotlight, but needs remain urgent,” Monday’s statement said.
It stressed that “any funding shortfalls in critical areas, including reductions to food assistance, cooking fuel or basic shelter, will have dire consequences for this highly vulnerable population.”
It could, it added, “force many to resort to desperate measures, such as embarking on dangerous boat journeys to seek safety.”
The UN said that more than half of the refugee population in the camps are women and girls, “who face a higher risk of gender-based violence and exploitation.”
And it highlighted that a third of the refugees are aged between 10 and 24, warning that “without access to formal education, adequate skills building and self- reliance opportunities, their futures remain on hold.”
“Until the situation in Myanmar’s Rakhine State is peaceful and conducive to returning safely and voluntarily, the international community must continue to fund life-saving assistance to refugees in the camps.”


China says it has not received any asylum application from Philippines’ Duterte

China says it has not received any asylum application from Philippines’ Duterte
Updated 24 March 2025
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China says it has not received any asylum application from Philippines’ Duterte

China says it has not received any asylum application from Philippines’ Duterte
  • Philippines’ former President Rodrigo Duterte’s trip to Hong Kong was for his personal holidays

BEIJING: China has not received any application for asylum from Philippines’ former President Rodrigo Duterte and his family, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday.
Duterte’s trip to Hong Kong was for his personal holidays, ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a regular press conference.
The former president was arrested on March 11 at Manila’s main airport on his arrival from Hong Kong at the request of the International Criminal Court (ICC) as part of its probe into a “war on drugs” that defined his presidency.