found to be involved in scanning should be close by now, says president, for the non marcus junior. declare is a total band last year with detailed coverage, just states, fees them as a security threat. welfare agency say they have been saved by those bank to protect them from the heart of the story. young people, we've talked to lots next screen, pulled up the lack of delta force them to fix it. they said it's cheaper to buy that's next comfortable. and then for the us state department stops nearly all foreign aid as president, donald trump pushes his america 1st policy, but this assistance also helps the us, the chief, it's fine policy goals. so how will they be affected along with other countries and communities around the world? this is inside story, the

hello welcome to the show. i'm sammy say that for decades the united states has been the largest single donor of a globally and last year it provided more than 40 percent of you. and so you monetary and a bunch it. and now most phone, the systems through the state department has been frozen for 90 days. we'd only emergency food programs and ministry a to israel and egypt exempted the aid suppose initiatives ranging from health and education to security and conflict. so what could be the effects of america's freeze on both for itself and all the nations, and how it re shape washington's relations with the world? we'll discuss all of this without panel shortly. the 1st that's listened into jo evans report. the aid has long helped us achieve as foreign policy goals. president donald trump's decision to freeze almost all foreign assistance,

but 90 days as part of his america. first strategy is up on the decades of policy, and there's already having a global impact. in 2023, washington distributed $72000000000.00 of funding in nearly a $180.00 countries. 4 days after taking office us secretary of state, marco ruby, i sent a cable to embassies worldwide, ordering a home to us projects. supposing everything from access to clean water house get education and children's health, the presidents emergency plans, the age release of pets, hopes come by the spread of h i v and aids, and is just one of the programs impacted by the fries. searching to meet people living with h of you should still be able to access friedman through a government facilities, but the government facilities are going to come under more pressure of the course. you will be moving a whole number of stuff to either other as being funded paragons. initially the

only exemptions to the phrase with us military aid to israel and egypt and the emergency food programs. like the one who used to help the people suffering from a whitening famine ensued on the us system for monitoring global simon has been taken offline. us secretary of state mock of rubio assigned an additional way the exempt and the live saving humanitarian assistance from the freeze, leaving humanitarian organizations. so you can clarity on what qualifies as life saving assistance. but the way but does not apply to abortions, family planning and programs that do not align with trump's conservative policies. a few monetary and assistance programs in ukraine had been forced to cut services and stopped many social projects, including the veteran hub, the support soldiers and their families. with them was one of the authors of we have not been able to pay salaries or any expenses since january. this means we are not allowed to ask people toward the united nations. secretary general has called

for additional exemptions to be issued. but the picture remains unclear. and it is in danger, the lives of millions of people globally. but some recipients of a say the phrase is an opportunity for them to work towards self reliance. what are we going to do? yeah. to support themselves. because nobody is going to continue holding out a hand to that, give you it this time for us to use our resources for the right things. we are the ones why using them for their own things. for now, the full full out of the trump administration, the decision as yet to become clear, humanitarian agencies a scrambling for clarification. while doing what they can to keep providing a central care to people and communities most in need. jo loven's outer 0, so inside story was bringing on guess now in westminster, in the us state of maryland. we have dave hoffman, he's

a former assistant administrator for the us, a bureau of democracy, conflict and humanitarian assistance in trying my in thailand, cell lies or clink director of the shooting human rights organization and, and jo, based in the, in mall and in washington, dc of de la, hey, bottle, how that? okay. a hold of african security on list and the see me advocate at refugees international welcome to well, if i could start with the law here, as is clear from that report, the us is the most generous country in the world. when it comes to foreign assistance, what does this freeze in us a mean for the rest of the world in broad terms? i guess for you has sent shock waves to many of the programs that the united states supports across the african continent. i think sometimes we forget that these programs they go on in the background. so

a lot of the time we do not know like very poor to mention the pet clock. it's one of the most on one of the most boring programs that not many people know about that block east supporting over 20000000 people with h i. v aids in cuba, close is on the african continent. one of the program that was also shot because of the death of a low bill day or the freeze ease fuse net that these phones are the warning system that really detects where they are forwarding security. so that the united states and other donors can move in that need relies on real time data that is being collected. this program was started off to the 19858385 finding in ethiopia. finally, we are experiencing funding sutton pods of saddam, as we speak. we will know if they will be relieved. our situation has changed. so

we are speaking. let me jump in up the line and because the question maybe from the donald from america 1st agenda perspective, why should the us carry that responsibility? shouldn't local countries carry the responsibility? us? absolutely. i think for many bases and they'll put trinity for them to step up. but in the, in the same, let's be very clear that the 48 or any formal humanitarian 80 is no just purely charging because the united states also use as nature many terry and diplomacy to get some of the things the ideally won't get. so it is a loss for the united states us well, because if we lose the leverage that the aid all the humanitarian support, that is d, as in these countries, lens, the united states. all right, that's a good point of the line. we'll pick up in a moment back on the point of the political aspects of this, but before we go to fall down that road, dave, 1st of all, what will happen often in 90 days? is it clear?

so it's not clear. let me just spent a moment responding to why this is in the us interest. so for instance, we've just halted monitoring of the ball in uganda. we've just halted. monitoring of abn flew in $47.00 countries around the world, which is striking the united states and, and prices in america. whereas the previous guys just knowing we caught the top bar which remains to scourge h i v h as a is a disease that's difficult to, to, to about in the united states, we hold that malaria surveillance um mtv surveillance. uh and we halted the fuse. got like your last guy started the, the found an early warning system. so this is a massive problem. we don't know what it will look like in 90 days, but here's what we can expect. there's been a purge of us, a senior leadership. there has been a, a,

a widespread bias. 7 option to all federal government employees, we can't expect a much smaller federal government, a very weak and perhaps non existent usa id and 90 days, and a dramatic car about a and car back of the assistance levels that we've seen. that spring in sly, your organization, of course, works with the local community. tell us what even if this turns out, so like to be a temporary freeze. what does it made for some of the initiatives? what does it meant rather, some of the initiatives that your organization is working on? have you been impacted? yes. certainly. uh, we have been impacted by this freeze um in a profound way of the free is risk cutting off life, saving

a to one of the most vulnerable regions in man, bye, which is already one of the most vulnerable in their entire world. so this is going to be, uh, does have a staging because we are experiencing, have been for the past 4 years, military violence from a military origin that came to power 4 years ago today. and this could also help our ability to document ongoing human rights abuses by the military, which is critical to accountability and ending impunity in burma sly. all lives at stake. yes, indeed. because what this cut means is that we would have to let go of medical professionals who are attending to some of the most vulnerable

groups fleeing from the war being displaced in very dire conditions. and they have no other alternative means of getting medical assistance or food aid. then we'd love this. many people who wouldn't be at risk of a serious situation like death. why that's quite disturbing, obviously to hear from, you know, someone like yourself is working with people on the ground. dave, we should put into context though that the, the old or the freeze does have a wave of covering life saving emergency programs and so on. and so forth, but it's been reported that actually that wave a system is not effective either cuz maybe some organizations don't know how to apply for the waiver or if they do apply for it. they always get information on the status of the waiver. is there a problem, dave? with the system of wave?

uh, you know, the way it looks on paper lot be fine, but when it supplies in reality, yes, there is. so let me set it out for your audience. so 1st there was an assumption for food age and then secondly, there was an assumption for non food manager and assistance, but it's really unclear. so for instance, fusion that the assignment early warning system is down, right? the, the other kind of critical point is that all the contractors and the staff ran to respond to emergency teams, both in washington and abroad have and then like gap. and so even if there are these exemptions are in place, it's not crystal clear or who can manage over see and, and, and, and, you know, be responsible for these responses. and i will say, in addition, what i know from my sources inside government is assistance to god so has been

paused. assistance to syria has been paused during a transitional time. assistance to georgia has been paused right. and this arcs around and the law in the middle east is vital for american american interests and american security and the chaos and the on. certainly, you know, all that just give space to the servers the law have. when we put all of this into perspective, we know that the phrase all covered a by certain programs us, i think they set the foreign ministry of the us. the secretary of states aid programs doesn't cover all the, all the avenues. in other words, of the law have for us assistance to reach some of the communities, you know, you've been talking about cases of tracking about a night, robi,

or organizations that keep babies on live support. and so that, i think sometimes it's reflected in how do you send ministration just to a change. so to all of these processes, yes, disease surveillance, which is very critical. i mean, we're talking about, for instance, the democratic republic of congo right now, which is going to conflict in the eastern part. and there are reports of disease outbreak of bodies, e, bola, in uganda. we have mile bug that has, you know, we've, we've had few cases in towns that knew the way the system works. is the cdc is that is disney disease controls in those areas. share the samples with the cdc in the united states. and then you will be able to track, and then the, the system will say for instance, on us citizen should no travel to country x or country y. so in that sense, even the system is shut us, we speak now,

the results all the bucks will not just be on those countries. yes, they have to step up into account their own. it will be also on the united states and other countries. this want to give an example to the viewers that look. this is nothing new. the u. k. government did something similar. and you know what happened that office when he was much into the minister of foreign affairs. it just became a smallish sale over each for myself. on we leave. the united kingdom's influence in the global stage completely diminished. yes, america fost is a good principal to get elected on. but america, fos, studies being projected now really will end up in diminishing this doc us of the united states and full most of those communities, doubtful it is going to be very, very difficult for the next couple weeks and months ahead. but they might find ways of adjusting, maintain training. it is going to be incredibly brutal. all right, on that point. so lie,

is it easy for organizations like yours to find those alternative sources of funding outside of usaid organizations? yes, so we are exploring alternative funding sources, including private donors, faith based organizations. and okay, is there a share other tools, okay. other countries like, you know, china, india, in the region, there's very, uh, no, there's no support from the region. and it would have to be borne by cutting larger countries like the you or the u. k. canada australia and we are ex, lowering the all possible sources of alternative funding. however, without us support, it will be incredibly difficult to maintain the scale of current operation and to meet the needs. we have 3500000 people uh,

being displaced by the ongoing uh, atrocities. um and uh, the over 18000000 people are in need of food assistance. uh so in that situation it is extremely difficult uh for it to cope with the sugar di, created by the us a fries. and what is the critical solution we're advocating for at this point is the release of most frozen wouldn't be in dollar reserved funding held in new york. uh, it says, the crew, the interest alone. i'm others to above $200000000.00. this could provide much, much needed help that we desperately need without costing

us takes pay or a penny. so this was significantly helped keep our operational running as well as the support of the human rights and democratic movement in the country. so we are appealing for the release of that fund at this point. dave does the aid phrase, we can then us leverage around the world if, as we're hearing from slight communities and now having to look at all the countries, all the regions for support. yes, i think so, i mean, we should be clear that as the international law, that is just not a us responsibility. it's a global responsibility and other countries need to step off. uh, you know, so, so done from that perspective it's very or something like usa product needs reform . every administration does review, although that is fine. uh, the prior administration probably got, you know, too far out on a, on

a host of different projects and programs that weren't core to poverty alleviation and global health. right. the administrative reform cars that are use the word which i found interesting approach going on, you know, how much of this is purely administrative and how much of this is political for, for just to serve a political agenda, real political goals. this is a 100 percent political. what i'm saying is, you know, there's always a crowd tours in, in any of these catastrophic, that's right. usa could use reform usa did go out too far on the margins for non priority undertake he's. but the fact that matter is you could have done a review was still continuing assistance. that's what every administration has done since the kennedy administration. you there is no need to per this junior, the non partisan career leaders of the agency just like

a decapitation of generals on those. um, you know, within, within washington there is a chilling effect. usaid officials can speak anybody, not even at the state department. and so really what we're seeing is a political retribution that's designed to undermine the 4 principle of this statutorily, independent and crew, and legal and congressional as authorized uh, agency. since that's been around since the kennedy administration. and so we are serious is the amount of attack against the in the, the, the freeze of assistance is one component of it is not the only come back of the law. you touched earlier on the political aspects of this and now might be a good time to come back to and ask you to take apart the role of political impacts of the us with drawing it's, it's 8 support, as dave explained earlier in some of those areas, critical areas there,

levant. ok. i think it was the term dave used when you look at to the cutting back of age and syria and jordan and to support the palestinians and so on. does that leave avoid which others? and maybe even a countries which are to put it nicely in competition with the us trying feel like china and so on. i totally, i think they, they, they, they, they, that's similar to that we control, we ease uh, development aid, you know, and development aid for a very long time was primarily the united states and the european countries and t and a couple of decades ago when china appeared on the scene on the method of supporting that was completely different from the west. and well, what doug gave china was that, couldn't mendez amount of leverage which most of those kind of exist to give you a sense every single time when china africa, somebody's being cold and i think the,

i don't many us we're going to head so state home me says those meetings compared to even the un general assembly in a, although it's very difficult, although it's very expensive compared to the development day that can be funded to get another means. china use no of us to taking advantage of the snow. just china though they are the middle level golf country is that i'm exploring some of these. every single goal is countries, especially in the owner of africa. they have already started getting in. but the real challenge to use, like able to say the pod really grains the system of really competent people, visa korea, people who know how to do, you know, evaluation. these are people to know how to do. let's say nutrition. so that is what would be lost, but i think that is not only one side of the ledger, even on the other side, i think that united states will lose delivered just to give you an example. they also get countries of the you in general assembly, i almost got the older men,

but states united states a new p and countries already lots of that through development aid. now to hear many, terry and aid they lose that if china comes to africa, you know to many, terry and i call me t a day african union and say, look, we'll step into these extent that wouldn't really begin giving them much stronger. foretold of on the african continent. well, for instance, joe biden doing, he's lost last time, few weeks before he left. he visited gall up. the reason why it didn't go on was the united states. he's trying to build a railway lot that we call the people triangle that come with that joins the democrats, republicans call those on the, on demand on goal of for shipment, of clean minerals that i used for clean, green energy to the united states in europe. you lose that to china, no other oct us that was definitely impact the united states as well. why not be

a good point now for us foot solve this in the context of some numbers because foreign aid is used by most government as a tool to influence others. that's no surprise. and as a way to implement their phone policies in the us, it's a complex process with funds being distributed through a variety of agencies. according to a congressional reports in 2022, about a quarter of a lady was spent on humanitarian assistance that included things like life saving food, medicine and shelter for people suffering. natural and non made disasters. just over face went to global health initiatives, 18 percent. that was funneled into developments forcing the economic, social and political development of countries and communities. and now the 18 percent went to wants classified as peace and security that involves programs to help strengthen demetri police and security forces, all the recipient country, and just briefly day. because that doesn't take into account all of the tow tyler

to yield minute tree hardware aid assistance, right? when you start to add numbers, those numbers into that i was looking up according to that pond to the aid cuz it can get confusing. but according to that part of the egg, which is tracked by the phone assistance don't. gov website, the bulk of us aid in 2023 has been on things like, you know, the humanitarian needs health and development. the 12 percent went towards minute for uses. might that change now if some of the humanitarian and development aid is being frozen or we're going to see that mix change you good. i mean here's was a little ironic. as you mentioned at the top of the show, a for a military assistance to israel and egypt was not processed in the fall of this. so the united states, which has not been particularly balanced on israel palestine is now in

a position of freezing a, to gaza and all the fruit, a nation manager and assistance despite the waivers. and increasing or allowing the assistance to is, are all set to go forward. and so you know that that's a stretch legitimately legitimacy. issue that i think doesn't serve us well. why the way i just started the truck ministration is considering on uh, on holding or releasing 24000 assault rifles to israel for use in uh, west back for guys. uh, mainly for the sellers. okay. this is in the context of the freeze global a and, and then the robot. right? is always money for guns when it comes to, to, to policies. it seems so like, is the ultimate outcome perhaps of this a growing black hole or even knowledge or information of what the situation is,

a vicious circle where organizations which track can document crises have to stop that work. there's certainly a big risk to that and document documentation and recording of crimes are, are extremely important in, in uh, holding perpetrators to account. and that's not just for the purpose of justice and just a comfortability. it's for justice for the victims. and we owe it to the people who have suffered so much from charity courageous around the world. all right, we're going to have to leave that as think all of on guess for the contributions. dave houghton, salanza. oh, cling and i'm delight bought. oh, how long? okay. and thank you to fortune you can see the show again, any time by visiting our website out to 0 dot com for further discussion head over

to a facebook page. that's facebook dot com, forward slash i j. inside story. you can also join the conversation on x l, a handle virus at a inside story from me. so i may say that on the whole team here, for now, let's go by the, the february on as jersey, 3 years on from the outbreak of the war and you cream out of view. it explores the human costs and assets, whether politics or the battlefield will determine its outcomes for cause new direction looks at the challenges facing nations across the continent. as they move away from dependency. aiming to re define their futures after a vote of no confidence in germany's transfer, people had to the polls with a sense of right christian democratic union parties, expected to take power rushes shut on africa examines of russia's growing influence

in the region through the prison. the central african republic, you'll see a whole the african mission as it chooses, leaders february on a dizzy at a manipulated by those in power. and selection is unique and we've seen anything like this before. no pressure, they were instrumental in helping the president when the election, driven by so interested play as fast put their after non profits for people susceptible to government control is perfect and it's designed to inflame and defense. the way that the story is being told is not right and it's not accurate from social networks to legacy media. the listening post exposes the forces behind the headlight on out his era. then the taurus terraces of the football extras club loyalty, company violence, confrontation when i was young, when there was a football match, we were frightened because the friends couldn't go crazy. what's in indonesia? one group of revolutionary supports is us taking a stand, i guess, mainly the dresser with a kind of alaska display of peace. and you between defends,

who make football. oh, trust and angels on out just the right the, the, the joy mix with grief, a 183 for my list and in prison is a freeze on his way the trails as part of the see spot deal which and how much space, right. the hello, i'm down, jordan, this is all just a red light from the whole. so coming up 3 is really captives held him gauze ulcer really stand, reunited with this on the lease. but then, you know, we try.