WASHINGTON: Trump administration changes have upended the US agency charged with providing humanitarian aid to countries overseas, with dozens of senior officials put on leave, thousands of contractors laid off, and a sweeping freeze imposed on billions of dollars in foreign assistance.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the pause on foreign assistance Thursday, saying “the US government is not a charity.”
Aid organizations say the funding freeze — and deep confusion over what US-funded programs must stop work as a result — has left them agonizing over whether they could continue operating programs such as those providing round-the-clock nutritional support to extremely malnourished infants and children, knowing that closing the doors means that many of those children would die.
Current and former officials at the State Department and the US Agency for International Development say staffers were invited to submit requests to exempt certain programs from the foreign aid freeze, which President Donald Trump imposed Jan. 20 and the State Department detailed how to execute on Jan. 24.
Three days later, at least 56 senior career USAID staffers were abruptly placed on administrative leave.
Three officials said many of those put on leave were lawyers involved in determining what programs might qualify for waivers, helping write proposals and submitting those waiver requests as they believed they had been invited to do.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. A Trump administration directive that aid organizations interpret as a gag order has left them unwilling to speak publicly for fear of permanently losing US funding.
In an internal memo Monday about the staffing changes, new acting USAID administrator Jason Gray said the agency had identified “several actions within USAID that appear to be designed to circumvent the President’s Executive Orders and the mandate from the American people.”
“As a result, we have placed a number of USAID employees on administrative leave with full pay and benefits until further notice while we complete our analysis of these actions,” Gray wrote.
A former senior USAID official said those put on leave had been helping aid organizations navigate the “confusing process” to seek waivers from the aid pause for specific life-saving projects, such as continuing clean water supplies for displaced people in war zones.
Others were identified as having been involved in diversity, equity and inclusion programming, which the administration has banned.
On Thursday, a USAID human resources official who tried to reverse the action, saying there was no justification for it, was himself placed on leave, according to two of the officials who had viewed internal emails and verified them as authentic. Reporters from ProPublica and Vox first reported the emails on X.
The State Department and White House didn’t respond to messages seeking comment about the staffing changes.
The new leaders at USAID also abruptly laid off contractors who made up about half the workforce in the agency’s humanitarian bureau Tuesday, knocking them out of systems so that some vanished in the middle of videoconferences, the former senior official said. The targeted institutional service contractors do everything from administrative and travel support to grant processing and data analytics.
The staffing changes came three days after the State Department issued guidelines last Friday for implementing Trump’s executive order freezing foreign assistance for 90 days. The department says it’s reviewing the money the United States is spending to ensure it adheres to administration policy.
The guidelines initially exempted only military aid to Israel and Egypt and emergency food programs but also said program administrators and implementors could apply for waivers for programs that they believe would meet administration standards.
On Tuesday, Rubio issued a broader waiver for programs that provide other “life-saving” assistance, including medicine, medical services, food and shelter, and again pointed to the possibility of waivers. Rubio pointed to the broadened exemptions in an interview Thursday with SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly.
“We don’t want to see people die and the like,” he said.
Rubio said there would be a program-by-program review of which projects make “America safer, stronger or more prosperous.”
The step of shutting down US-funded programs during the 90-day review meant the US was “getting a lot more cooperation” from recipients of humanitarian, development and security assistance, Rubio said. “Because otherwise you don’t get your money.”
The State Department said that since the aid freeze went into effect, it has approved dozens of waivers, although many were returned because they did not include enough detail. It said waiver requests for programs costing “billions of dollars” have been received and are being reviewed.
The department did not specify how many waiver requests had been denied but said thus far its actions had stopped more than $1 billion from being spent on programs and projects that are “not aligned with an America First agenda.”
Even with the broadening of exemptions for life-saving care, uncertainty surrounds what US-funded programs legally can continue. Hundreds of thousands of people globally are going without access to medicine and humanitarian supplies and clinics are not getting medicine in time because of the funding freeze, aid organizations warn.
US aid agency is in upheaval during foreign assistance freeze and staff departures
https://arab.news/c5ghn
US aid agency is in upheaval during foreign assistance freeze and staff departures
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- Current and former officials say they were invited to submit requests to exempt certain programs from the freeze
Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman and his wife and dog found dead in their New Mexico home
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Foul play was not suspected, but authorities did not release circumstances of their deaths and said an investigation was ongoing.
Hackman, 95, was found dead with his wife Betsy Arakawa and their dog when deputies preformed a welfare check at the home around 1:45 p.m., Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Denise Avila said.
The gruff-but-beloved Hackman was among the finest actors of his generation, appearing as both villains, heroes and antiheroes in dozens of dramas, comedies and action films from the 1960s until his retirement in the early 2000s.
He was a five-time Oscar nominee who won for “The French Connection” and “Unforgiven” 21 years apart. His death comes just four days before this year’s ceremony.
The couple’s home is in a gated community just outside New Mexico’s capital city. Hackman moved to the area in the 1980s, where he was often seen around town and served as a board member of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in the 1990s, according to the local paper, The New Mexican.
Aside from appearances at awards shows, he was rarely seen in the Hollywood social circuit and retired about 20 years ago. His was the rare Hollywood retirement that actually lasted.
In his later years, he wrote novels from the hilltop ranch that provided a view of the Rocky Mountains.
An email sent to his publicist was not immediately returned early Thursday.
Austria is getting a new coalition government without far-right election winner
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Three parties announced Thursday that they have reached a deal to form a new centrist Austrian government, five months after an election was won by a far-right party that later failed in an attempt to form an administration.
A statement from the conservative Austrian People’s Party, the center-left Social Democrats and the liberal Neos said they agreed on a program for a coalition after the longest post-election hiatus in post-World War II Austria.
The country’s politicians broke a record of 129 days to form a new government that dated back to 1962.
New People’s Party leader Christian Stocker is expected to become chancellor.
Zelensky invited to special EU summit on support for Ukraine
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BRUSSELS: EU Council President Antonio Costa on Thursday said he had invited Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky to the special summit of EU leaders on March 6, to discuss future support to Ukraine.
“The EU and its member states are ready to take more responsibility for Europe’s security,” Costa said in invitation letter to EU leaders.
“We should therefore be prepared for a possible European contribution to the security guarantees that will be necessary to ensure a lasting peace in Ukraine.”
Costa, who chairs the EU summits, said he aimed for decisions that would make the EU “better equipped to deal with immediate and future challenges to its security.”
Russian and US diplomats meet in Turkiye for talks on repairing ties
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- The delegations will also include officials from the State Department and Russian Foreign Ministry
ISTANBUL: Russian and US diplomats met in Turkiye on Thursday for talks to resolve disputes over the work of their respective embassies in Washington and Moscow, a first test of their ability to reset wider relations and work toward ending the war in Ukraine.
The Kremlin last year described relations as “below zero” under the administration of Joe Biden, who backed Ukraine with aid and weapons and imposed waves of sanctions on Russia to punish it for its 2022 invasion.
But his successor, President Donald Trump, has upended that policy and moved swiftly since taking office last month to open talks with Moscow, pledging to fulfil his repeated promise to bring a quick end to the war.
The talks in Istanbul follow a phone call between Trump and President Vladimir Putin on February 12, and a high-level diplomatic meeting in Saudi Arabia six days later.
The Russian team arrived in a black Mercedes van for the start of the meeting at the gated residence of the US consul general in Istanbul. Russian state TV said the talks were expected to last five to six hours.
Ukraine and its European allies are worried that Trump’s rapid rapprochement with Moscow could lead to a deal on ending the war that sidelines them and undermines their security. Trump says he wants to end the bloodshed with an early ceasefire.
Putin this week tempered expectations of a quick deal, saying it was essential to rebuild trust between Russia and the United States before anything could be achieved.
The two countries have expelled diplomats and limited the appointment of new staff at each other’s missions in a series of tit-for-tat measures over the past decade, leaving their embassies thinly staffed.
Narrow focus
The US State Department said Thursday’s talks would cover issues such as staffing levels, visas and diplomatic banking.
“To be clear, there are no political or security issues on the agenda. Ukraine is not on the agenda,” a State Department spokesperson said on the eve of the meeting.
“The constructiveness of these talks will become apparent very quickly; either issues will get resolved or they won’t. We will know soon if Russia is really willing to engage in good faith.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the outcome of the meeting “will show how quickly and effectively we can move.”
He acknowledged that Russia had “created uncomfortable conditions” for USdiplomats in Moscow, in what he said was retaliation for Washington’s treatment of their Russian counterparts.
The talks, despite their narrow focus, are an initial step in a process that could have profound implications for the whole Russia-US relationship in areas such as nuclear disarmament and economic cooperation.
Both sides have said they see potential for lucrative business ventures. Putin said this week that Moscow would be ready to invite the US to enter joint projects to tap rare earth deposits in Russia and in the parts of Ukraine that it has claimed as its own territory.
The US delegation in Istanbul was led by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Sonata Coulter, and the Russian team by Alexander Darchiyev, head of the foreign ministry’s North America department.
Darchiyev is seen as front-runner to be Russia’s next ambassador to the US, a post that is currently vacant.
Pro-Palestinian protesters force their way into Barnard College building, injuring an employee
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NEW YORK: Pro-Palestinian protesters wearing kaffiyeh scarves and masks pushed their way into Barnard College’s Milbank Hall, which houses the offices of the dean, and assaulted a school employee Wednesday, according to the school.
The protesters later left Milbank Hall in the night “without further incident,” Barnard President Laura Rosenbury said in a statement.
“But let us be clear: their disregard for the safety of our community remains completely unacceptable,” she said.
The school had warned that if the students were not gone by 9:30 p.m. officials could be forced to take “additional, necessary measures to protect our campus.”
The student group Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine said on the social platform X that protesters dispersed after the administration agreed to meet with them Thursday afternoon.
The demonstrators demanded amnesty for all students disciplined for pro-Palestine action; a meeting with Rosenbury and Dean Leslie Grinage; and reversal of the expulsion of two students, according to the group.
“WE WILL NOT STOP UNTIL OUR DEMANDS ARE MET. FREE PALESTINE,” it posted on X earlier in the day.
An employee was sent to the hospital after being assaulted by the protesters, Robin Levine, Barnard’s vice president for strategic communications said in a statement, without offering further details.
The protesters also encouraged other people to come on campus without identification, Levine added.
“Barnard leadership offered to meet with the protesters — just as we meet with all members of our community — on one simple condition: remove their masks,” she said earlier in the evening. “They refused. We have also offered mediation.”
Videos posted by the student group showed people wearing masks and kaffiyeh scarves chanting in a hallway. Some banged on drums, while others held megaphones.
Palestinian flags were hung on the walls and slogans such as “Barnard funds genocide” and “Free Palestine” were scrawled on the walls.