Foreign
Trump administration seeks legislative backing to terminate vaccine funding
The President Donald Trump administration plans to terminate the United States’ financial support for the Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunisation, the organization that has helped purchase critical vaccines for children in developing countries.
Some other programs terminated is funding for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, which conducts surveillance for diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans, including bird flu, in 49 countries. Some major programs to track and fight malaria, one of the world’s top killers of children, have also been ended.
Those decisions are included in a 281-page spreadsheet that the United States Agency for International Development sent to the US Congress, listing the foreign aid projects it plans to continue and to terminate.
The New York Times obtained a copy of the spreadsheet and other documents describing the plans.
For many years, developing countries have relied on GAVI support to combat malaria.
Gavi is estimated to have saved the lives of 19 million children since it was set up 25 years ago. The United States contributes 13 percent of its budget.
The terminated grant to Gavi was worth $2.6 billion through 2030.
By Gavi’s own estimate, the loss of U.S. support may mean 75 million children do not receive routine vaccinations in the next five years, with more than 1.2 million children dying as a result.
The U.S. has been among the top donors to the organization since its creation, and became the largest during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Gavi was counting on a pledge made last year by President Joseph R. Biden Jr. for its next funding cycle.
New vaccines with the promise to save millions of lives in low-income countries, such as one to protect children from severe malaria and another to protect teenage girls against the virus that causes cervical cancer, have recently become available, and Gavi was expanding the portfolio of support it could give those countries.
The loss of U.S. funds may set back the organization’s ability to continue to provide its basic range of services — such as immunization for measles and polio — to a growing population of children in the poorest countries, let alone expand to include new vaccines.
While European countries have historically provided significant funding, many are now reducing foreign aid spending as they grapple with the change in U.S. policy on Ukraine and the U.S. demand that they increase their defense spending.
Japan, another major Gavi donor, is struggling with a depreciating currency.
GAVI’s chief executive, Dr. Sania Nishtar said that she hoped the Trump administration would reconsider the decision to end its support. “Gavi’s work keeps people everywhere, including Americans, safe. In addition to protecting individual children, vaccination reduces the possibility of large outbreaks. The organization maintains global stockpiles for vaccines against diseases such as Ebola and cholera, deploying them in rapid response efforts for epidemics,” she said.
Gavi’s structure requires countries to pay part of the cost of vaccines, with their share growing as income levels rise; middle-income countries are weaned from support.
The Trump administration, according to the letter has decided to continue 898 U.S. Agency for International Development Awards and to end 5,341.
It says the remaining programs are worth up to $78 billion.
But only $8.3 billion of that is unobligated funds — money still available to disburse, because the amount covers awards that run several years into the future.
The figure shows a massive reduction in the $40 billion that U.S.A.I.D. used to spend annually.
The administration has decided to continue some key grants for medications to treat H.I.V. and tuberculosis, and food aid to countries facing civil wars and natural disasters.
The cover letter details the skeletal remains of U.S.A.I.D. after the cuts, with most of its funding eliminated, and only 869 of more than 6,000 employees still on active duty.
The memo says that 869 U.S.A.I.D. personnel were working as of last Friday, while 3,848 were on administrative leave and 1,602 are in the process of being laid off.
Of 300 probationary employees who were initially fired, 270 have returned to work following a court order prohibiting their dismissal.
A spokesperson for the State Department, which now runs what is left of U.S.A.I.D., confirmed the terminations on the list were accurate and said that “each award terminated was reviewed individually for alignment with agency and administration priorities, and terminations were executed where Secretary Rubio determined the award was inconsistent with the national interest or agency policy priorities.”
Although the administration has repeatedly said publicly that its foreign assistance review process has been concluded, the information in the documents suggests that there is still some fluidity in which programs will survive.
Staff members of one major malaria program that was terminated weeks ago, and which appears on the list of canceled projects sent to Congress, for example, were informed on Monday that it is being restored.
Nevertheless, cuts to malaria response are deep. While awards that fund the bulk purchase of bednets and malaria treatments have been preserved, many of the programs to deliver these and other malaria control efforts in individual countries such as Cameroon and Tanzania — among the most affected in the world — have been terminated.
Some organizations with awards that have not been officially canceled have received no funds for more than two months, and have folded. Without them, there is no one to take treatments from ports to local clinics, or deliver them to children.
Some 15,000 nurses went on strike Monday in New York city at three large private hospital groups over pay and conditions.
Officials declared a state of emergency over the work stoppage which the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) said on its website came after months of bargaining for a new contract reached a deadlock.
The association says it is the largest strike by nurses in the city’s history.
Picket lines were set up at several private hospitals across New York including facilities of New York-Presbyterian, Montefiore Bronx, and Mount Sinai.
“Unfortunately, greedy hospital executives have decided to put profits above safe patient care and force nurses out on strike when we would rather be at the bedsides of our patients,” Nancy Hagans, NYSNA’s president, said.
“Hospital management refuses to address our most important issues — patient and nurse safety.”
New York’s Democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani rallied in support of the nurses Monday, saying “we know that during 9/11 it was nurses that tended to the wounded.”
“We know that during the global pandemic, it was nurses that came into work, even at the expense of their own health,” he said, wearing a red NYSNA scarf.
Mamdani called on all sides to “return immediately to the negotiating table and not leave. They must bargain in good faith.”
The hospital groups involved discharged or transferred a number patients, canceled some surgeries and drafted in temporary staff.
A Mount Sinai spokesperson told CBS News that “unfortunately, NYSNA decided to move forward with its strike while refusing to move on from its extreme economic demands, which we cannot agree to, but we are ready with 1,400 qualified and specialized nurses — and prepared to continue to provide safe patient care for as long as this strike lasts.”
Donald Trump has proclaimed he’s the “Acting President of Venezuela
Incumbent January 2026.” Styled like an edited Wikipedia page, an image, posted to social media, displayed his official portrait and listed his tenure as both the 45th and 47th President of the United States.
The actual Wikipedia page does not list Trump as Venezuela’s acting president, nor has any international body recognised the claim.
The post followed the US’ capture and removal of sitting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was flown to New York along with his wife to face federal drug trafficking charges. The operation came after months of US pressure, sanctions, and military activity targeting the oil-rich nation. Maduro has claimed he was “kidnapped.” China, Russia, Colombia, and even Spain have called the US action a blatant violation of international law.
Hours after the operation, Trump declared that the US would “run” Venezuela temporarily, citing security concerns and the need for a controlled transition. He also said the US would oversee and sell Venezuelan oil to global markets during this interim period.
Inside Venezuela, Maduro’s second-in-command, Delcy Rodriguez, took the oath as interim President. Rodriguez rejected US claims of authority, demanded Maduro’s release, and declared him the nation’s rightful leader.
Trump warned that Rodriguez could “pay a very big price” if she did not cooperate with the US. Trump suggested her consequences could be even more severe than Maduro’s, who is being held in New York on narcoterrorism and drug trafficking charges.
Trump also claimed credit after Venezuela announced it would release a number of political prisoners as a gesture to “seek peace.” On Truth Social, he said that the releases had occurred “in a big way” following US action and warned the freed prisoners to “never forget it.”
The US President also asked major American oil companies to invest up to $100 billion in Venezuela to rapidly expand the country’s oil production. Speaking at a White House meeting with oil executives last week, Trump said the US would decide which companies are allowed to operate in Venezuela and help rebuild its deteriorated oil sector.
He praised an agreement with Venezuela’s interim leadership to supply 50 million barrels of crude oil to the US and said deliveries could continue indefinitely. He said that increased supply would help lower US energy prices.
Trump also signed an executive order protecting money held in the United States that is derived from sales of Venezuelan oil.
Sean “Diddy” Combs, currently serving a four-year jail term for offences related to prostitution, has reportedly sought a presidential pardon from Donald Trump, a request the US president says he has no intention of granting.
In an interview with The New York Times published on Thursday, Trump said he was not considering clemency for the hip-hop star or several other prominent figures, including Venezuela’s former leader, Nicolas Maduro.
Combs, 56, was convicted in July on two counts of transporting individuals across state lines for prostitution, although a jury cleared him of more serious charges involving sex trafficking and racketeering.
Trump confirmed that Combs had written to him requesting a pardon but made clear he was uninterested in acting on it. Asked about Maduro—who was recently captured by US forces and now faces drug trafficking charges—Trump replied, “No, I don’t see that.”
The president also recalled that he granted clemency in November to former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez, who had been serving a 45-year sentence for drug-related crimes.
Trump further ruled out pardons for disgraced cryptocurrency executive Sam Bankman-Fried, sentenced to 25 years in prison, and former Democratic senator Robert Menendez, who is serving 11 years for bribery.
Responding to questions about Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted in the 2020 killing of George Floyd, Trump said, “I haven’t been asked about it.”
On his inauguration day, Trump issued pardons to more than 1,500 individuals convicted or charged in connection with the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, and has since extended clemency to several loyalists.
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