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US Halts Foreign Aid, Exempts Military Funding For Israel, Egypt

Published

6 months ago

January 25, 2025

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The United States, the world’s biggest donor, froze virtually all foreign aid on Friday, making exceptions only for emergency food, and military funding for Israel and Egypt.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent an internal memo days after President Donald Trump took office vowing an “America First” policy of tightly restricting assistance overseas.

“No new funds shall be obligated for new awards or extensions of existing awards until each proposed new award or extension has been reviewed and approved,” said the memo to staff seen by AFP.

The sweeping order appears to affect everything from development assistance to military aid — including to Ukraine, which received billions of dollars in weapons under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden as it tries to repel a Russian invasion.

The directive also means a pause of at least several months of US funding for PEPFAR, the anti-HIV/AIDS initiative that buys anti-retroviral drugs to treat the disease in developing countries, largely in Africa.

Launched under president George W. Bush in 2003, PEPFAR is credited with saving some 26 million lives and until recently enjoyed broad popular support along partisan lines in Washington.

But the memo explicitly made exceptions for military assistance to Israel — whose longstanding major arms packages from the United States have expanded further since the Gaza war — and Egypt, which has received generous US defense funding since it signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.

Rubio also made an exception for US contributions to emergency food assistance, which the United States ahs been contributing following crises around the world including in Sudan and Syria.

Lawmakers from the rival Democratic Party said that more than 20 million people relied on medication through PEPFAR and 63 million people on US-funded anti-malaria efforts including nets.

“For years, Republicans in Congress have decried what they see as a lack of U.S. credibility vis-a-vis countries like China, Russia, and Iran,” said Representative Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Relations Committee, and Representative Lois Frankel.

“Now our credibility is on the line, and it appears we will cut and run from American commitments to our partners around the world,” they wrote in a letter.

Washington has long leveraged aid as a tool of its foreign policy, saying it cares about development and drawing a contrast with China, which is primarily concerned about seeking natural resources.

Meeks and Frankel also noted that foreign assistance is appropriated by Congress and said they would seek its implementation.

– ‘Life or death consequences’ –

The memo allows the State Department to make other case-by-case exceptions and temporarily to fund salaries to staff and other administrative expenses.

The memo called for an internal review of all foreign assistance within 85 days.

In justifying the freeze, Rubio — who as a senator was a supporter of development assistance — wrote that it was impossible for the new administration to assess whether existing foreign aid commitments “are not duplicated, are effective and are consistent with President Trump’s foreign policy.”

The United States has long been the world’s top donor in dollar terms, although a number of European nations, especially in Scandinavia, give significantly more as a percent of their economies.

The United States gave more than $64 billion in overseas development assistance in 2023, the last year for which records were available, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which advises industrialized countries.

Trump had already on taking office Monday signed an executive order suspending foreign assistance for 90 days, but it was not immediately clear how it would be implemented.

Anti-poverty group Oxfam said that Trump was abandoning a longstanding consensus in the United States for foreign assistance.

“Humanitarian and development assistance accounts for only around one percent of the federal budget; it saves lives, fights diseases, educates millions of children and reduces poverty,” Oxfam America president Abby Maxman said in a statement.

“Suspending and ultimately cutting many of these programs could have life or death consequences for countless children and families who are living through crisis,” she said.

AFP

Headline

US To Revoke Student Visas For Those Who Skip Classes, Programmes

Published

13 hours ago

August 4, 2025

Editor

The United States has issued a warning to international students regarding the consequences of violating student visa regulations.

In a message shared via its official X handle on Monday, the US Mission in Nigeria stressed that students who drop out, skip classes, or leave their academic programmes without notifying their schools risk having their US student visas revoked.

Such actions could also lead to disqualification from obtaining future US visas, it stated.

The mission advised all student visa holders to strictly adhere to the terms of their visas and maintain their academic status to avoid any immigration issues.

“If you drop out, skip classes, or leave your programmes of study without informing your school, your student visa may be revoked, and you may lose eligibility for future US visas.

“Always adhere to the terms of your visa and maintain your student status to avoid any issues,” the mission noted.

Headline

Fake Labubu Dolls Worth Millions Seized In London Raid Amid Growing Safety Fears

Published

2 days ago

August 3, 2025

Editor

Thousands of fake Labubu dolls believed to be worth millions of pounds have been seized at an industrial estate on the outskirts of London following a major crackdown led by Trading Standards and law enforcement agencies.

The operation, which followed weeks of investigation, traced the fake merchandise from a corner shop in Swansea, south Wales, to a warehouse complex in London.

Officers discovered rooms stacked floor-to-ceiling with fake goods, but it was the imitation Labubu dolls at the centre of a viral TikTok craze that drew the most concern.

The dolls, produced by popular toy company Pop Mart, have surged in global demand, with some genuine pieces retailing for up to £80. The popularity of the brand helped the company double its revenue to £1.33 billion last year, according to Forbes. However, authorities say the boom has also attracted criminal enterprises looking to profit from the trend through counterfeit production.

“The head comes off. The feet pull off. The eyes aren’t glued in,” said Rhys Harries, a Trading Standards officer, while examining one of the seized dolls. “These are clear choking hazards.”

Using a plastic tool modelled after a child’s throat, Harries demonstrated how easily parts of the fake dolls could become life-threatening. “These parts would get stuck and potentially cause choking,” he warned.

The scale of the operation was alarming. Border Force officials say they have intercepted hundreds of thousands of fake Labubu dolls at UK ports in recent months, with many traced back to manufacturers in China, Hong Kong, and Turkey.

In one case, a mother from Caerphilly, Jade, recounted how fake Labubu dolls she bought for her six-year-old son Harri’s birthday began falling apart within hours. “The hook came off and ended up in his mouth,” she said. “Luckily he was old enough to spit it out and tell me.”

Despite knowing the dolls were fakes, Jade said she bought them due to the high cost of the original ones and peer pressure from other children. She got the knock-offs for just over £10 each.

Authorities say the rush to cash in on the craze has led to the use of substandard and potentially dangerous materials, including toxic plastics. Kate Caffery, deputy director of intelligence and law enforcement at the UK’s Intellectual Property Office, said counterfeiting is the second most lucrative source of criminal income worldwide, after drug trafficking.

“There’s a complete disregard for safety,” Caffery said. “They’re made from anything from the inferior to the outright dangerous.”

TikTok collector and plush toy enthusiast Meg Goldberger, 27, said she struggled to find genuine dolls due to scalpers bulk-buying authentic stock and reselling them at inflated prices. “They sell out in seconds,” she said. “Some resellers are using bots to buy hundreds at once.”

Investigators found invoice books showing the dolls were destined for locations across the UK. Some of the seized dolls will be used as evidence, while the rest will be stored in a secure location before being recycled or destroyed.

Pop Mart has been contacted for comment on the counterfeit issue, which authorities say is now a national concern.

Headline

Young Catholics Converge On Rome For Pope Leo’s Vigil

Published

2 days ago

August 2, 2025

Editor

Thousands of young Catholics began assembling Saturday for an evening prayer vigil led by Pope Leo XIV, the culmination of a week-long pilgrimage and a key event in the Jubilee holy year that is expected to draw up to a million people.

The “Jubilee of Youth” — when the Vatican invites Catholics aged 18 to 35 to the seat of the global Church’s power — has seen young pilgrims from around the world flood Rome, waving flags, singing or praying in groups.

It comes nearly three months after Leo, 69, the first American pontiff, began his papacy, and 25 years after the last such massive youth gathering in Rome under Poland’s Pope John Paul II.

On Saturday morning, thousands of young pilgrims had already gathered at the vast open space in Rome’s eastern Tor Vergata neighbourhood where the pope will lead the vigil, the ground already dotted with blankets and mattresses.

Elsewhere in the Eternal City, numerous groups of young people were seen preparing to set off for the venue.

On the plaza outside the Basilica of St John Lateran, they filled water bottles, applied suncream and checked bags of food and snacks — ready to spend the next 24 hours surrounded by a swarm of people and then sleep under the stars.

Victoria Perez, who carried a Spanish flag, could not contain her excitement at seeing “the Pope up close.

“It’s the first time I’m going to see him, and I can’t wait,” the 21-year-old told AFP, excited to experience the “night of prayers under the stars”.

French pilgrim, Quentin Remaury, 26, said he had been inspired by the late Pope Francis’s rousing message to youth during a 2016 visit to Krakow, Poland.

“Pope Francis told us to ‘get off your couches,’ and that really gave me a boost,” he said.

– ‘What is his message?’ –

Since the youth jubilee began on Monday, attendees have participated in various Church-planned events throughout the city.

On Friday, approximately 1,000 priests were on hand to take confession at Circus Maximus, one of Rome’s top tourist spots.

Some 200 white gazebos lined the hippodrome where chariot races were once held, and youths lined up to speak to priests in 10 different languages.

Of the many languages heard on the streets of the Italian capital this week, Spanish seemed to dominate. The Vatican has said that more than 146 countries were represented, and it expects up to a million people to attend the vigil.

The pilgrimage is taking place as economic uncertainty and anxiety over climate change rise among the under-30s, with many saying they were curious to hear the Church’s position on global warming, wars and economic inequalities.

Samarei Semos, 29, said she had travelled three days from her native Belize to get to Rome.

“We are still trying to understand his leadership,” she said of the new pope, adding she hoped he would have a strong say about “third world countries”.

As Parisian student Alice Berry exclaimed, “What does he have to say to us? What is his message for young people?”

– Raising voices –

The youth pilgrimage also comes amid global alarm over the humanitarian situation in Gaza, and more than three years of war in Ukraine.

The Vatican has praised young Catholics who managed to travel to Rome from war-scarred countries, with Pope Leo saying the voices of the world’s youth “will be heard to the end of the earth”.

In an unprecedented move, Leo hosted a mass on Tuesday for Catholic social media influencers, signalling the Vatican’s openness to supporting the Internet-savvy youth.

More than 4,300 volunteers will be working the event to welcome the young pilgrims, along with over 1,000 police, according to organisers.

Roman authorities have tightened security in the city — which has seen an unprecedented number of people, with both tourists and pilgrims inundating the city.

AFP