GENEVA: The UN agencies for food and refugees plan deep cuts due to an unprecedented plunge in funding, including from former top donor the US, internal memos sent to staff show, raising questions about how to maintain hunger relief.
The humanitarian sector has been roiled by funding cuts from major donors, led by the United States under President Donald Trump, and other Western countries as they prioritize defense spending prompted by growing fears of Russia and China.
The World Food Programme, a Rome-based UN agency, warned last month that 58 million people are at risk of extreme hunger or starvation unless urgent funding for food aid arrives. Millions of people facing acute food shortages in Sudan could be affected, the WFP said on Friday.
In an internal memo sent to staff on Thursday and seen by Reuters, WFP director Stephen Omollo said that the cuts were necessary due to the “unprecedented funding environment,” with the 2025 donor outlook at $6.4 billion, or a 40 percent reduction versus last year. He did not name any countries responsible.
“We remain concerned that the situation shows no sign of improving,” he said, adding that the planned cuts might not be sufficient and that further downsizing was being explored.
“In this challenging donor environment, WFP will prioritize its limited resources on vital programs that bring urgently needed food assistance to the 343 million people struggling with hunger, and increasingly facing starvation,” the WFP said in a statement to Reuters.
The United States, Germany, Britain and the European Commission have been among the top donors in recent years, its website showed. WFP, like many United Nations agencies, relies entirely on voluntary donations.
The note to staff from UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) chief Filippo Grandi dated April 23 said that it planned an overall reduction in costs of 30 percent and that the number of senior positions would be cut in half.
“We will have to close some country offices, instead covering these countries through strengthened multi-country office structures,” Grandi said.
UNHCR spokesperson William Spindler told a Geneva press briefing that the agency has been severely affected by funding uncertainty. “We have had to respond to this by stopping a lot of work we have been doing in the field,” he said.
A second spokesperson later added that UNHCR was undertaking a comprehensive review of its operations, staffing and structures, declining to give a timeline since the review is ongoing.
UN food, refugee agencies plan deep cuts as funding slashed, memos show
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UN food, refugee agencies plan deep cuts as funding slashed, memos show
- The humanitarian sector has been roiled by funding cuts from major donors, led by the US
- WFP director Stephen Omollo said that the cuts were necessary due to the “unprecedented funding environment“
Fast-moving brush fire on Hawaii’s Maui island evacuates about 50 people. No structures have burned
- Officials said it was 85 percent contained as of Monday morning
The fire started Sunday in a sparsely populated area with land set aside for Native Hawaiians.
Here’s what we know about the fire so far:
Fire size now estimated at 330 acres
The Kahikinui was initially estimated at 500 acres (202 hectares), but aerial surveys overnight put the estimate at about 330 acres (134 hectares), Maui’s fire department said. The fire is 85 percent contained.
The remote, challenging terrain made it difficult to estimate the fire’s size, the department said in a statement. A police drone showed hot spots, but none flared overnight.
No injuries or structural damage was reported. Weather conditions were mostly sunny Monday with a high of 67 degrees Fahrenheit (19 degrees Celsius) and east winds of about 15 mph (24 kph), gusting up to about 25 mph (40 kph).
The US Drought Monitor says all of Maui is in drought.
Authorities conducted door-to-door evacuations and part of a highway remains closed.
Flashbacks to an earlier fire
Warren Aganos was on his family’s Hawaiian Homelands lot preparing to go on a Father’s Day hunt when a neighbor called him around 9 a.m. telling him a fire had broken out.
“I hung up and raced out, I didn’t let her finish,” said Aganos, who has been slowly rebuilding the three structures his family lost in a 2016 brush fire that burned over 5,000 acres (2,000 hectares) in the same area. “I was thinking about the last one,” he said. “It was super emotional.”
Aganos said he rushed in his truck to make sure first responders knew where the community’s water storage tanks were before navigating Kahikinui’s dirt roads down to the highway where he could see smoke billowing over the hillside. The community lacks electrical and water infrastructure, and some of the roads are only navigable by four-wheel drive.
State and local leaders signed emergency proclamations so that the Hawaii National Guard can help and counties can access assistance.
What is the region like?
Kahikinui is less populated and developed than Lahaina, which was the Hawaiian Kingdom’s capital in the 1800s and is now a popular tourist destination. Kahikinui was used for cattle ranching for many years and is near a state forest reserve.
The fire department sent engines, tankers and a helicopter to battle the blaze. Three bulldozers cut firebreaks in the lower part of the community, Desiree Graham, co-chair of Kahikinui’s firewise committee, said.
The area has 104 Hawaiian homeland lots of 10 to 20 acres (4 to 8 hectares) each. About 40 lots have homes, including 15 with full-time residents. Some lots have more than one home, Graham said.
A state agency issues lot leases under a program Congress created in 1921 to help Native Hawaiians become economically self-sufficient. Those with at least 50 percent Hawaiian blood quantum can apply for a 99-year lease for $1 a year.
Fire devastated Lahaina nearly two years ago
Maui is still recovering from the massive inferno that enveloped Lahaina in August 2023.
That fire was the deadliest in the US in more than a century. It destroyed thousands of properties and caused an estimated $5.5 billion in damage. University of Hawaii researchers say unemployment and poverty rose after the blaze.
The Kahikinui fire may seem small compared to continental US fires, but it’s significant for an island of 735 square miles (1,903 square kilometers).
Other Western fires
Crews also are battling wildfires in the Pacific Northwest, around the Great Basin, in California and the Rockies.
National Weather Service forecasters and federal land managers have warned in recent weeks that fire danger is escalating in many places amid rising daytime temperatures and single-digit humidity levels.
The risks won’t start to wane — at least in the southwestern US — until the monsoon starts to kick in, bringing much-needed rain. In southern New Mexico, a wildfire ballooned to nearly 30 square miles (78 square kilometers) over the weekend in the Gila National Forest.
The flames forced the evacuations of homes that dot the mountains north of Silver City, blocked access to the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument and prompted air quality warnings as smoke drifted north. Campgrounds and access points to the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail also were closed.
In Oregon, several dozen homes in Wasco County were destroyed by a fire that started last Wednesday. Some evacuations remained, but fire managers said Monday that the threat to structures had diminished.
So far this year, the nation has seen double the number of fires as last year but the acreage is less, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. More than 2,700 wildland firefighters and support personnel were assigned to 15 large wildfires across the country.
Despite law, US TikTok ban likely to remain on hold
- Trump has repeatedly downplayed risks that TikTok is in danger, saying he remains confident of finding a buyer for the app’s US business
SAN FRANCISCO, United States: US President Donald Trump is widely expected to extend the Thursday deadline for TikTok to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a ban in the United States.
It would be the third time Trump put off enforcing a federal law requiring its sale or ban, which was to take effect the day before his January inauguration.
“I have a little warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” Trump said in an NBC News interview in early May.
“If it needs an extension, I would be willing to give it an extension.”
Trump said a group of purchasers is ready to pay TikTok owner ByteDance “a lot of money” for the video-clip-sharing sensation’s US operations.
Trump has repeatedly downplayed risks that TikTok is in danger, saying he remains confident of finding a buyer for the app’s US business.
The president is “just not motivated to do anything about TikTok,” said independent analyst Rob Enderle.
“Unless they get on his bad side, TikTok is probably going to be in pretty good shape.”
Trump had long supported a ban or divestment, but reversed his position and vowed to defend the platform after coming to believe it helped him win young voters’ support in the November election.
“Trump’s not really doing great on his election promises,” Enderle maintained.
“This could be one that he can actually deliver on.”
Motivated by national security fears and belief in Washington that TikTok is controlled by the Chinese government, the ban took effect on January 19, one day before Trump’s inauguration, with ByteDance having made no attempt to find a suitor.
TikTok “has become a symbol of the US-China tech rivalry; a flashpoint in the new Cold War for digital control,” said Shweta Singh, an assistant professor of information systems at Warwick Business School in Britain.
“National security, economic policy, and digital governance are colliding,” Singh added.
The Republican president announced an initial 75-day delay of the ban upon taking office.
A second extension pushed the deadline to June 19.
As of Monday, there was no word of a TikTok sale in the works.
Trump said in April that China would have agreed to a deal on the sale of TikTok if it were not for a dispute over tariffs imposed by Washington on Beijing.
ByteDance has confirmed talks with the US government, saying key matters needed to be resolved and that any deal would be “subject to approval under Chinese law.”
Possible solutions reportedly include seeing existing US investors in ByteDance roll over their stakes into a new independent global TikTok company.
Additional US investors, including Oracle and private equity firm Blackstone, would be brought on to reduce ByteDance’s share in the new TikTok.
Much of TikTok’s US activity is already housed on Oracle servers, and the company’s chairman, Larry Ellison, is a longtime Trump ally.
Uncertainty remains, particularly over what would happen to TikTok’s valuable algorithm.
“TikTok without its algorithm is like Harry Potter without his wand — it’s simply not as powerful,” said Forrester Principal Analyst Kelsey Chickering.
Meanwhile, it appears TikTok is continuing with business as usual.
TikTok on Monday introduced a new “Symphony” suite of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools for advertisers to turn words or photos into video snippets for the platform.
“With TikTok Symphony, we’re empowering a global community of marketers, brands, and creators to tell stories that resonate, scale, and drive impact on TikTok,” global head of creative and brand products Andy Yang said in a release.
Russia attacks Kyiv with waves of drones, missiles
- “More strikes by Russian drones on residential buildings in Kyiv,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, wrote on Telegram
Waves of Russian drones and missiles struck districts across the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on Tuesday, damaging an apartment building, sparking fires and injuring up to 16 people, city officials said.
Reuters witnesses said drones swarmed over the capital and they heard what appeared to be missiles overhead. An air raid alert remained in effect more than seven hours after it had been proclaimed.
Other parts of the country also came under attack, including areas outside the capital and the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, where the regional governor reported at least four strikes.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram that most of the 16 injured were in Solomianskyi district, near the city center, where a drone damaged the top floor of an apartment building and other non-residential areas.
Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, noted 12 strikes in five districts. Among the targets was a kindergarten in the city’s eastern edge.
“The capital is coming under a combined attack,” Tkachenko wrote. “The Russians are deploying missiles and strike drones. There are fires in different districts and emergency crews are at work.”
Waves of drones had attacked Solomianskyi district, he said. “This is a very difficult night,” he wrote, adding that there had been power cuts in some areas.
Both Ukraine and Russia have launched mass drone attacks in recent weeks as the two sides have held two sessions of direct talks on ending the more than three-year-old war. The talks have produced agreements on freeing prisoners of war and returning the bodies of fallen soldiers, but little more.
“More strikes by Russian drones on residential buildings in Kyiv,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, wrote on Telegram. “Russia is continuing its war on civilians.”
Klitschko reported that a 62-year-old US citizen had died in a dwelling opposite a site where medics were providing assistance. He gave no further details and it was not clear how the man had died.
In Moscow, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Russian air defense units had repelled an attack on the city by two Ukrainian drones. The city’s airports were briefly closed.
G7 urges Iran de-escalation as Trump makes hasty summit exit
- Asked what it would take for the US to get involved in the conflict militarily, Trump said Monday morning, “I don’t want to talk about that”
- The G7, which originated as a 1973 finance ministers’ meeting to address the oil crisis and evolved into a yearly summit meant to foster personal relationships among world leaders and address global problems
G7 leaders on Monday called for "de-escalation" in the Middle East starting with the Israel-Iran conflict, as US President Donald Trump hastily left the group's summit.
Trump, who was making his return to the international diplomatic calendar, departed the gathering in the Canadian Rockies a day early as ally Israel pounded Iran.
After a day of statements backing diplomacy, Trump ominously took to social media to sound a warning to people in the Iranian capital, whose population is nearly 10 million.
"Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!" he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Having earlier hesitated at backing a joint statement on the crisis, Trump relented during a dinner at a forested lodge under the snow-capped mountains in Kananaskis.
"We urge that the resolution of the Iranian crisis leads to a broader de-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, including a ceasefire in Gaza," said the joint statement released by Canada.
The statement said that Israel "has a right to defend itself" and stressed "the importance of the protection of civilians," as the growing attacks kill civilians on both sides.
The leaders of the club of industrial democracies -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States -- stated their conviction that Iran "can never have a nuclear weapon."
Trump for weeks said he favored diplomacy, and his envoy Steve Witkoff met five times with Iranian envoys, but he quickly backed Israel's strikes and said that Tehran's clerical state should have agreed to his terms.
At a group photo with fellow G7 leaders before the dinner, Trump said: "I have to be back as soon as I can. I wish I could stay for tomorrow, but they understand, this is big stuff."
French President Emmanuel Macron suggested that the United States was ready to make a diplomatic overture.
"There was an offer made for a meeting and an exchange," Macron told reporters.
Trump told reporters before his decision was announced to leave early: "As soon as I leave here, we're going to be doing something."
He has repeatedly declined to say if the United States would participate in Israeli military action, although he has said Washington was not involved in initial strikes and the White House said that US forces remained in a defensive posture.
Trump earlier said that Iran would be "foolish" not to agree to a negotiated settlement.
"It's painful for both parties, but I'd say Iran is not winning this war, and they should talk, and they should talk immediately, before it's too late," Trump told reporters as he met Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
The US president will miss a day of G7 meetings that was expected to include discussions with the leaders of Ukraine and Mexico.
Since Friday, Israel has struck major nuclear and military sites and killed leading commanders and nuclear scientists in Iran, which has responded with its own volley of drones and missiles on Israel.
Macron voiced objections to what increasingly appeared to be Israel's goal -- toppling the clerical state that took power after the 1979 revolution toppled the pro-Western shah.
"All who have thought that by bombing from the outside you can save a country in spite of itself have always been mistaken," he said.
Iran, since Trump pulled out of an earlier nuclear deal in 2018, has ramped up uranium enrichment but not yet at levels to create an atomic bomb.
Israel is widely known to have nuclear weapons but does not acknowledge them publicly.
The summit comes after months of tumult on the global stage since Trump's return to the White House.
Seeking to shatter a decades-old US-led global economic order, Trump has vowed sweeping tariffs on friends and foes alike although he has postponed implementation until July 9.
But Trump voiced optimism about a resolution with Canada and signed documents with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to confirm an agreement with Britain.
Trump has previously mocked host Canada, stating that the vast but less populated neighbor should become the 51st US state.
But Trump has appeared to show more respect to Canada since Carney, a staid former central banker, took over from the more flamboyant Justin Trudeau in March.
Trump had taken office seeking diplomacy both on Iran and Ukraine, which Russia invaded in 2022.
He has since voiced frustration that Russian President Vladimir Putin has not accepted a US proposal for a ceasefire.
Trump said Monday that Putin was "very insulted" by Russia's 2014 expulsion from the G8 and that if Russia were still a member, "you wouldn't have a war right now."
US official says Trump not signing G7 statement on Israel-Iran de-escalation
- Canadian and European diplomats said G7 attendees are continuing discussions on the conflict at the summit in Canada, which ends on Tuesday
CALGARY, Alberta: A US official said on Monday that President Donald Trump would not sign a draft statement from Group of Seven leaders calling for de-escalation of the Israel-Iran conflict.
The draft statement, seen by Reuters, also commits to safeguarding market stability, including energy markets, says Iran must never have a nuclear weapon, and that Israel has the right to defend itself.
Canadian and European diplomats said G7 attendees are continuing discussions on the conflict at the summit in Canada, which ends on Tuesday.
