The Japan Times
@thejapantimes@mastodon.social  ·  activity timestamp 15 hours ago

With 1,100 tons of emergency food rations nearing expiry after President Donald Trump's aid freeze, it took a warning of "wasted tax dollars" for a top U.S. official to eventually agree to a deal to use the supplies. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/07/17/world/politics/us-aid-workers-food-destruction-trump/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #worldnews #politics #us #usaid #hunger #gaza #sudan
The Japan Times
@thejapantimes@mastodon.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago

Deep cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development and its potential dismantling under President Donald Trump could result in about 14 million additional deaths by 2030, a study published in The Lancet warns. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/07/01/world/politics/study-us-aid-cuts-deaths/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #worldnews #politics #usaid #health #donaldtrump #us #budgets
Solarpunk Presents Podcast
@solarpunkpresents@climatejustice.social  ·  activity timestamp 3 weeks ago

7.8: Why Do These Cancelled Science Grants Matter?

In this episode, Christina talks to Dr Gabriel Filippelli - one of the first scientists to have a running project canceled by the Trump administration. This fascinating interview reveals just how important internationally these American grants can be, and Dr Filippelli passionately describes this unprecedented attack on science and education and what we all lose when the work that scientists do grinds to a halt or is extremely politically curtailed. It's important, he tells us, to support the institutions that you care about and are vital to the continued knowledge of how to survive our climate-changed future.

Dr Filippelli is the Chancellor’s Professor of Earth Sciences at Indiana University Indianapolis and the Executive Director of the Indiana University Environmental Resilience Institute. He works at the junction between biogeochemical cycles, climate change, and human health.

Dr Filippelli has also written the book Climate Change and Life: The Complex Co-evolution of Climate and Life on Earth, and Beyond, which explores Earth's ecological resilience to the great changes in climate that have occurred over the history of the Earth. He was also part of the driving force behind Climate Change and Resilience in Indiana and Beyond, which details local efforts to reduce the risks and lessen the harmful impacts of climate change, as well as prepare for the unavoidable consequences of climate change.

https://youtu.be/8ub129iucIg

#solarpunk#podcast#SolarpunkPresentsPodcast#Season7#Episode #science#ResearchGrants#AmericanPolitics#USPolitics#DOGE#BioGeoChemistry#USAID#Academia#AcademicResearch#AcademicFunding @academicchatter#Resilience #ClimateChange#AirQuality
Zhi Zhu 🕸️
@ZhiZhu@newsie.social  ·  activity timestamp 3 weeks ago

"here in West Africa, the heavy metal doors of a warehouse creak open. Inside are boxes piled high with millions of doses of medicines donated by Merck and other pharmaceutical companies for a #UnitedStates aid program. Yet the medications are gathering dust, and some are approaching their expiration dates and may have to be destroyed, at immense expense.

this waste of drugs exists only because [Trump's] administration shut down #USAID"

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/21/opinion/waste-musk-trump.html

#Trump#USPol #News#World#USA
Zhi Zhu 🕸️
@ZhiZhu@newsie.social  ·  activity timestamp 3 weeks ago

"One of the most dangerous things a woman can do in a poor country is get pregnant. The Guttmacher Institute estimates that #American assistance has prevented some 34,000 maternal deaths per year around the world. That suggests that ending such aid may lead #women to perish in pregnancy approximately once every 15 minutes."
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/21/opinion/waste-musk-trump.html

#ElonMusk#Musk #Doge#Trump#GOP#USPol#Politics#USAID#Health#Healthcare#World #News#US#USA

Text from article: So when I hear glib talk about waste and abuse in U.S.A.I.D., I think of how we American taxpayers purchased ambulances for Liberia at a cost of more than $50,000 each and then abruptly cut off gasoline funds, leaving a young mom to bleed to death. Freeman is buried in an unmarked grave on the edge of the forest. Her two daughters, ages 3 and 6, weep for their mother. “The three of us sit together and cry,” said Freeman’s younger sister, Annie. One of the most dangerous things a woman can do in a poor country is get pregnant. The Guttmacher Institute estimates that American assistance has prevented some 34,000 maternal deaths per year around the world. That suggests that ending such aid may lead women to perish in pregnancy approximately once every 15 minutes.
Text from article: So when I hear glib talk about waste and abuse in U.S.A.I.D., I think of how we American taxpayers purchased ambulances for Liberia at a cost of more than $50,000 each and then abruptly cut off gasoline funds, leaving a young mom to bleed to death. Freeman is buried in an unmarked grave on the edge of the forest. Her two daughters, ages 3 and 6, weep for their mother. “The three of us sit together and cry,” said Freeman’s younger sister, Annie. One of the most dangerous things a woman can do in a poor country is get pregnant. The Guttmacher Institute estimates that American assistance has prevented some 34,000 maternal deaths per year around the world. That suggests that ending such aid may lead women to perish in pregnancy approximately once every 15 minutes.
Text from article: So when I hear glib talk about waste and abuse in U.S.A.I.D., I think of how we American taxpayers purchased ambulances for Liberia at a cost of more than $50,000 each and then abruptly cut off gasoline funds, leaving a young mom to bleed to death. Freeman is buried in an unmarked grave on the edge of the forest. Her two daughters, ages 3 and 6, weep for their mother. “The three of us sit together and cry,” said Freeman’s younger sister, Annie. One of the most dangerous things a woman can do in a poor country is get pregnant. The Guttmacher Institute estimates that American assistance has prevented some 34,000 maternal deaths per year around the world. That suggests that ending such aid may lead women to perish in pregnancy approximately once every 15 minutes.
Zhi Zhu 🕸️
@ZhiZhu@newsie.social  ·  activity timestamp 3 weeks ago

"a woman named Bendu Kiadu is mourning her child Gbessey, who was just 1 year old.

Gbessey caught #malaria in March. In normal times, a community health worker would have administered simple medicines for malaria... But the closing of #USAID led to the collapse of some supply chains, so #health workers had no malaria medicine to offer Gbessey.

...The next day, Gbessey died.

“Our #children are dying because of a lack of medicine,” Kiadu told me."
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/21/opinion/waste-musk-trump.html

#Musk#Trump #News

Photo with caption from article: Photo: A woman holding a baby. Caption: Bendu Kiadu holds her newborn, Osman, who is sick with malaria. Her 1-year-old son, Gbessey, died when the local clinic ran out of malaria medicine. Credit: Saidu Bah for The New York Times
Photo with caption from article: Photo: A woman holding a baby. Caption: Bendu Kiadu holds her newborn, Osman, who is sick with malaria. Her 1-year-old son, Gbessey, died when the local clinic ran out of malaria medicine. Credit: Saidu Bah for The New York Times
Photo with caption from article: Photo: A woman holding a baby. Caption: Bendu Kiadu holds her newborn, Osman, who is sick with malaria. Her 1-year-old son, Gbessey, died when the local clinic ran out of malaria medicine. Credit: Saidu Bah for The New York Times
Text from article: Come also to the village of Vonzua in western Liberia, where a woman named Bendu Kiadu is mourning her child Gbessey, who was just 1 year old. Gbessey caught malaria in March. In normal times, a community health worker would have administered simple medicines for malaria, and the United States noted just last year that it provided “vital” and “critical” support to fight malaria in Liberia. But the closing of U.S.A.I.D. led to the collapse of some supply chains, so health workers had no malaria medicine to offer Gbessey. Kiadu rushed the child to a clinic, but it, too, had run out of malaria medicine. The next day, Gbessey died. Now Kiadu’s youngest child, Osman, is also seriously ill with malaria, and the community health workers and the clinic still have no malaria medicine. She worries that she will lose two of her children within months. “Our children are dying because of a lack of medicine,” Kiadu told me.
Text from article: Come also to the village of Vonzua in western Liberia, where a woman named Bendu Kiadu is mourning her child Gbessey, who was just 1 year old. Gbessey caught malaria in March. In normal times, a community health worker would have administered simple medicines for malaria, and the United States noted just last year that it provided “vital” and “critical” support to fight malaria in Liberia. But the closing of U.S.A.I.D. led to the collapse of some supply chains, so health workers had no malaria medicine to offer Gbessey. Kiadu rushed the child to a clinic, but it, too, had run out of malaria medicine. The next day, Gbessey died. Now Kiadu’s youngest child, Osman, is also seriously ill with malaria, and the community health workers and the clinic still have no malaria medicine. She worries that she will lose two of her children within months. “Our children are dying because of a lack of medicine,” Kiadu told me.
Text from article: Come also to the village of Vonzua in western Liberia, where a woman named Bendu Kiadu is mourning her child Gbessey, who was just 1 year old. Gbessey caught malaria in March. In normal times, a community health worker would have administered simple medicines for malaria, and the United States noted just last year that it provided “vital” and “critical” support to fight malaria in Liberia. But the closing of U.S.A.I.D. led to the collapse of some supply chains, so health workers had no malaria medicine to offer Gbessey. Kiadu rushed the child to a clinic, but it, too, had run out of malaria medicine. The next day, Gbessey died. Now Kiadu’s youngest child, Osman, is also seriously ill with malaria, and the community health workers and the clinic still have no malaria medicine. She worries that she will lose two of her children within months. “Our children are dying because of a lack of medicine,” Kiadu told me.
Zhi Zhu 🕸️
@ZhiZhu@newsie.social  ·  activity timestamp 3 weeks ago

"CHILDREN ARE DYING because medicines have been abruptly cut off, & risks of Ebola, tuberculosis & other diseases reaching #America are increasing — while medicines sit uselessly in warehouses.

After #ElonMusk boasted about feeding #USAID “into the wood chipper” over a weekend, he claimed that no one had died as a result...

Come with me on a trip to the villages where your aid cuts are killing #children. Open your eyes."

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/21/opinion/waste-musk-trump.html

#Musk#Trump#USPol#Politics#Health#World

Text from article: I’ve been traveling through Sierra Leone and Liberia to gauge the impact of Trump’s closing of U.S.A.I.D., to see how bad things have gotten since an earlier trip through South Sudan and Kenya. Here’s what I see: Children are dying because medicines have been abruptly cut off, and risks of Ebola, tuberculosis and other diseases reaching America are increasing — while medicines sit uselessly in warehouses. After Elon Musk boasted about feeding U.S.A.I.D. “into the wood chipper” over a weekend, he claimed that no one had died as a result. Secretary of State Marco Rubio repeated that claim just last month. So I challenge them both: Come with me on a trip to the villages where your aid cuts are killing children. Open your eyes. And if you dare to confront actual waste and abuse — the kind that squanders lives as well as money — join me in the village of Kayata, Liberia,
Text from article: I’ve been traveling through Sierra Leone and Liberia to gauge the impact of Trump’s closing of U.S.A.I.D., to see how bad things have gotten since an earlier trip through South Sudan and Kenya. Here’s what I see: Children are dying because medicines have been abruptly cut off, and risks of Ebola, tuberculosis and other diseases reaching America are increasing — while medicines sit uselessly in warehouses. After Elon Musk boasted about feeding U.S.A.I.D. “into the wood chipper” over a weekend, he claimed that no one had died as a result. Secretary of State Marco Rubio repeated that claim just last month. So I challenge them both: Come with me on a trip to the villages where your aid cuts are killing children. Open your eyes. And if you dare to confront actual waste and abuse — the kind that squanders lives as well as money — join me in the village of Kayata, Liberia,
Text from article: I’ve been traveling through Sierra Leone and Liberia to gauge the impact of Trump’s closing of U.S.A.I.D., to see how bad things have gotten since an earlier trip through South Sudan and Kenya. Here’s what I see: Children are dying because medicines have been abruptly cut off, and risks of Ebola, tuberculosis and other diseases reaching America are increasing — while medicines sit uselessly in warehouses. After Elon Musk boasted about feeding U.S.A.I.D. “into the wood chipper” over a weekend, he claimed that no one had died as a result. Secretary of State Marco Rubio repeated that claim just last month. So I challenge them both: Come with me on a trip to the villages where your aid cuts are killing children. Open your eyes. And if you dare to confront actual waste and abuse — the kind that squanders lives as well as money — join me in the village of Kayata, Liberia,
Zhi Zhu 🕸️
@ZhiZhu@newsie.social  ·  activity timestamp 3 weeks ago

"One of the most dangerous things a woman can do in a poor country is get pregnant. The Guttmacher Institute estimates that #American assistance has prevented some 34,000 maternal deaths per year around the world. That suggests that ending such aid may lead #women to perish in pregnancy approximately once every 15 minutes."
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/21/opinion/waste-musk-trump.html

#ElonMusk#Musk #Doge#Trump#GOP#USPol#Politics#USAID#Health#Healthcare#World #News#US#USA

Text from article: So when I hear glib talk about waste and abuse in U.S.A.I.D., I think of how we American taxpayers purchased ambulances for Liberia at a cost of more than $50,000 each and then abruptly cut off gasoline funds, leaving a young mom to bleed to death. Freeman is buried in an unmarked grave on the edge of the forest. Her two daughters, ages 3 and 6, weep for their mother. “The three of us sit together and cry,” said Freeman’s younger sister, Annie. One of the most dangerous things a woman can do in a poor country is get pregnant. The Guttmacher Institute estimates that American assistance has prevented some 34,000 maternal deaths per year around the world. That suggests that ending such aid may lead women to perish in pregnancy approximately once every 15 minutes.
Text from article: So when I hear glib talk about waste and abuse in U.S.A.I.D., I think of how we American taxpayers purchased ambulances for Liberia at a cost of more than $50,000 each and then abruptly cut off gasoline funds, leaving a young mom to bleed to death. Freeman is buried in an unmarked grave on the edge of the forest. Her two daughters, ages 3 and 6, weep for their mother. “The three of us sit together and cry,” said Freeman’s younger sister, Annie. One of the most dangerous things a woman can do in a poor country is get pregnant. The Guttmacher Institute estimates that American assistance has prevented some 34,000 maternal deaths per year around the world. That suggests that ending such aid may lead women to perish in pregnancy approximately once every 15 minutes.
Text from article: So when I hear glib talk about waste and abuse in U.S.A.I.D., I think of how we American taxpayers purchased ambulances for Liberia at a cost of more than $50,000 each and then abruptly cut off gasoline funds, leaving a young mom to bleed to death. Freeman is buried in an unmarked grave on the edge of the forest. Her two daughters, ages 3 and 6, weep for their mother. “The three of us sit together and cry,” said Freeman’s younger sister, Annie. One of the most dangerous things a woman can do in a poor country is get pregnant. The Guttmacher Institute estimates that American assistance has prevented some 34,000 maternal deaths per year around the world. That suggests that ending such aid may lead women to perish in pregnancy approximately once every 15 minutes.
Zhi Zhu 🕸️
@ZhiZhu@newsie.social  ·  activity timestamp 3 weeks ago

"Each tax dollar invested in mass administration of drugs like these leverages $26 in donated medicines, making the effort astoundingly cost-effective. One of the medications languishing in this warehouse is sufficient to protect 7.6 million #children & adults from a parasitic disease called river blindness. Other donated medicines... would rid more than 2 million children of worms, plus protect 1.4 million kids from a debilitating parasitic ailment called schistosomiasis"

#Musk #News#Health

Text from article: It’s an excellent example of the waste that President Trump claims was rife in the United States Agency for International Development. (“Absolutely obscene,” as he put it in February.) But this waste of drugs exists only because his administration shut down U.S.A.I.D. and canceled plans to distribute these medicines, even though the pills cost America nothing and are ready to use. Each tax dollar invested in mass administration of drugs like these leverages $26 in donated medicines, making the effort astoundingly cost-effective. One of the medications languishing in this warehouse is sufficient to protect 7.6 million children and adults from a parasitic disease called river blindness. Other donated medicines in the warehouse would rid more than two million children of worms, plus protect 1.4 million kids from a debilitating parasitic ailment called schistosomiasis that causes pain, weakness and bloody urine. These medicines also have the side benefit of protecting against worms that cause elephantiasis, a disfiguring and humiliating ailment. “People come to ask for these drugs,” Tamba Koroma, the warehouse’s watchman, told me. “We tell them we can’t distribute them.”
Text from article: It’s an excellent example of the waste that President Trump claims was rife in the United States Agency for International Development. (“Absolutely obscene,” as he put it in February.) But this waste of drugs exists only because his administration shut down U.S.A.I.D. and canceled plans to distribute these medicines, even though the pills cost America nothing and are ready to use. Each tax dollar invested in mass administration of drugs like these leverages $26 in donated medicines, making the effort astoundingly cost-effective. One of the medications languishing in this warehouse is sufficient to protect 7.6 million children and adults from a parasitic disease called river blindness. Other donated medicines in the warehouse would rid more than two million children of worms, plus protect 1.4 million kids from a debilitating parasitic ailment called schistosomiasis that causes pain, weakness and bloody urine. These medicines also have the side benefit of protecting against worms that cause elephantiasis, a disfiguring and humiliating ailment. “People come to ask for these drugs,” Tamba Koroma, the warehouse’s watchman, told me. “We tell them we can’t distribute them.”
Text from article: It’s an excellent example of the waste that President Trump claims was rife in the United States Agency for International Development. (“Absolutely obscene,” as he put it in February.) But this waste of drugs exists only because his administration shut down U.S.A.I.D. and canceled plans to distribute these medicines, even though the pills cost America nothing and are ready to use. Each tax dollar invested in mass administration of drugs like these leverages $26 in donated medicines, making the effort astoundingly cost-effective. One of the medications languishing in this warehouse is sufficient to protect 7.6 million children and adults from a parasitic disease called river blindness. Other donated medicines in the warehouse would rid more than two million children of worms, plus protect 1.4 million kids from a debilitating parasitic ailment called schistosomiasis that causes pain, weakness and bloody urine. These medicines also have the side benefit of protecting against worms that cause elephantiasis, a disfiguring and humiliating ailment. “People come to ask for these drugs,” Tamba Koroma, the warehouse’s watchman, told me. “We tell them we can’t distribute them.”
Zhi Zhu 🕸️
@ZhiZhu@newsie.social  ·  activity timestamp 3 weeks ago

"CHILDREN ARE DYING because medicines have been abruptly cut off, & risks of Ebola, tuberculosis & other diseases reaching #America are increasing — while medicines sit uselessly in warehouses.

After #ElonMusk boasted about feeding #USAID “into the wood chipper” over a weekend, he claimed that no one had died as a result...

Come with me on a trip to the villages where your aid cuts are killing #children. Open your eyes."

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/21/opinion/waste-musk-trump.html

#Musk#Trump#USPol#Politics#Health#World

Text from article: I’ve been traveling through Sierra Leone and Liberia to gauge the impact of Trump’s closing of U.S.A.I.D., to see how bad things have gotten since an earlier trip through South Sudan and Kenya. Here’s what I see: Children are dying because medicines have been abruptly cut off, and risks of Ebola, tuberculosis and other diseases reaching America are increasing — while medicines sit uselessly in warehouses. After Elon Musk boasted about feeding U.S.A.I.D. “into the wood chipper” over a weekend, he claimed that no one had died as a result. Secretary of State Marco Rubio repeated that claim just last month. So I challenge them both: Come with me on a trip to the villages where your aid cuts are killing children. Open your eyes. And if you dare to confront actual waste and abuse — the kind that squanders lives as well as money — join me in the village of Kayata, Liberia,
Text from article: I’ve been traveling through Sierra Leone and Liberia to gauge the impact of Trump’s closing of U.S.A.I.D., to see how bad things have gotten since an earlier trip through South Sudan and Kenya. Here’s what I see: Children are dying because medicines have been abruptly cut off, and risks of Ebola, tuberculosis and other diseases reaching America are increasing — while medicines sit uselessly in warehouses. After Elon Musk boasted about feeding U.S.A.I.D. “into the wood chipper” over a weekend, he claimed that no one had died as a result. Secretary of State Marco Rubio repeated that claim just last month. So I challenge them both: Come with me on a trip to the villages where your aid cuts are killing children. Open your eyes. And if you dare to confront actual waste and abuse — the kind that squanders lives as well as money — join me in the village of Kayata, Liberia,
Text from article: I’ve been traveling through Sierra Leone and Liberia to gauge the impact of Trump’s closing of U.S.A.I.D., to see how bad things have gotten since an earlier trip through South Sudan and Kenya. Here’s what I see: Children are dying because medicines have been abruptly cut off, and risks of Ebola, tuberculosis and other diseases reaching America are increasing — while medicines sit uselessly in warehouses. After Elon Musk boasted about feeding U.S.A.I.D. “into the wood chipper” over a weekend, he claimed that no one had died as a result. Secretary of State Marco Rubio repeated that claim just last month. So I challenge them both: Come with me on a trip to the villages where your aid cuts are killing children. Open your eyes. And if you dare to confront actual waste and abuse — the kind that squanders lives as well as money — join me in the village of Kayata, Liberia,
The Japan Times
@thejapantimes@mastodon.social  ·  activity timestamp 3 weeks ago

The United States is giving $30 million to a controversial humanitarian group delivering aid in war-torn Gaza despite concern over violence near the distribution sites. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/06/25/world/politics/us-30-million-gaza-aid-operation/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #worldnews #politics #middleeast #israel #gaza #israelhamaswar #palestinians #us #usaid
jbz
@jbz@indieweb.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

💀 Doge cuts to USAid blamed for 300,000 deaths — most of them children

“The world’s richest man taking from its poorest and getting thanked for it,” said Nichols, associate professor of global health at the university’s school of public health. “The optics are horrifying.”

https://www.thetimes.com/us/american-politics/article/usaid-doge-deaths-children-cuts-7nb83dfkp

#musk #doge #usaid