Tag: foreign aid

Suffering in Afghanistan the Fault of Taliban, Not U.S. Aid Cuts

A devastating earthquake underscores how the Taliban has subjected the people of Afghanistan to suffering, while the muted international response shows that even globalists, Muslim-majority nations, and authoritarian regimes are steering clear of the Taliban and its support for transnational terrorism.

Prior to the earthquake, the only government extending significant economic support to the Taliban was the Biden administration. In 2021, it left behind over $7 billions of dollars’ worth of weapons, and over its four-year term (2021–2025) provided an estimated $2.5–3 billion in direct aid. However, the real total is much higher. Testimony before the House Oversight Committee revealed that between 2021 and 2023 alone, the Biden administration gave Afghanistan $8 billion.

The 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck Konar province near the Pakistan border late on August 31, 2025, killing more than 2,200 people and injuring thousands. The shallow quake collapsed fragile mud-and-brick homes, wiping out entire villages and leaving over half a million people without shelter.

This tragedy comes amid one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Four years of Taliban rule have left Afghanistan isolated, foreign aid has dried up, and nearly half the population, about 23 million, depend on assistance. While the Taliban has appealed for help, its alignment with authoritarian powers, support for terrorism, and gross human rights violations have discouraged broader aid and recognition.

The Taliban maintain close ties with al-Qaeda and provide safe haven for Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which continues to operate from Afghan territory and carry out cross-border attacks. A UN report noted, “The Taliban do not conceive of TTP as a terrorist group: the bonds are close, and the debt owed to TTP is significant.” Other designated terror groups have pledged allegiance to the Taliban, including al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, Jemaah Islamiyah, Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin, and Ansar al-Sharia in Libya.

Since the fall of Kabul in 2021, only Russia has formally recognized the Taliban as Afghanistan’s government. Moscow lifted its “terrorist” designation in April 2025 and formally recognized the regime that July. China has not granted formal recognition but accepted Taliban credentials in 2024, and Iran has also moved closer, handing over the Afghan embassy in 2023 and sending its foreign minister to Kabul in 2025. Yet both Iran and Pakistan have worsened the crisis by deporting 1.9 million Afghan refugees, many forced to live in tents near the borders.

Under Taliban rule, human rights and quality of life, especially for women, have collapsed. Nearly 23 million Afghans require aid: 21 million lack safe water, 14.8 million face acute food insecurity, 14.3 million have limited healthcare access, and 7.8 million women and children need nutrition support. The World Food Program warns 3.1 million Afghans are on the brink of starvation, with 2.9 million already at emergency levels.

Healthcare is collapsing. By April 2025, 439 facilities had closed due to U.S. funding cuts, leaving three million people without care. More than 200 others have shut from severe shortfalls, affecting two million more. In 2023, reports warned that over 90 percent of facilities were at risk, leading to an estimated 4.8 million unattended pregnancies and 51,000 maternal deaths between 2021 and 2025. Infant mortality was 43 per 1,000 in 2021, and maternal mortality 620 per 100,000 in 2020. Between mid-2024 and mid-2025, 3.5 million children and 1.2 million pregnant or breastfeeding women are projected to suffer acute malnutrition.

The economy has collapsed. Nearly half of Afghans live below the poverty line. Before the Taliban takeover, foreign aid made up 40 percent of GDP, funded more than half the government’s $6 billion budget, and covered up to 80 percent of public expenditures. Since then, this support has vanished, leaving more than 14 million food insecure and nearly five million women and children acutely malnourished.

Repression is systematic. In the first half of 2024, UN monitors recorded nearly 100 arbitrary detentions and at least 20 cases of torture, targeting former officials, deportees, and LGBT Afghans. Corporal punishments are common, with at least 147 men, 28 women, and four boys flogged in 2024, and more than 180 people publicly punished for adultery or homosexuality in early 2025.

Freedom of expression has disappeared. Between 2021 and 2024, UNAMA documented 336 cases of arbitrary arrest, torture, and intimidation of journalists. The Taliban banned live political broadcasts, censored images, and detained reporters, often without legal or family access. Civil society critics also face harassment, including the detention of analyst Jawed Kohistani.

Women and girls have been erased from public life. They are banned from secondary school from age 13, excluded from universities, and denied healthcare without a male guardian. Nearly 80 percent of young women between 18 and 29 are neither in education, employment, nor training. Only one in four women is working or seeking work, compared to nearly 90 percent of men, creating one of the world’s largest workforce gender gaps. The Taliban suspended women’s medical education in 2024, and UNDP estimates these restrictions cost the economy up to $1 billion annually.

Violence compounds repression. ISKP has carried out deadly attacks on Hazara communities, mosques, buses, and Taliban offices. Pakistani cross-border fire and airstrikes have added civilian casualties. Meanwhile, the Taliban’s Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice law enforces strict dress and behavior codes, backed by raids and checkpoints, mirroring their 1996–2001 rule. UN experts describe this as “institutionalized persecution” that may amount to crimes against humanity.

Keep reading

Appeals Court Stacked with Far-Left Judges Sides with Biden Judge, Says Trump Can’t Unilaterally Cut Billions in Foreign Aid

On Friday, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals sided with a radical Biden judge and said President Trump could not unilaterally cut billions in foreign aid.

Last Wednesday, US District Judge Amir Ali, a Biden appointee, blocked President Trump from cutting billions of dollars in USAID and foreign aid that Congress authorized.

Trump immediately appealed Judge Ali’s ruling.

“President Trump has the executive authority to ensure that all foreign aid is accountable to taxpayers and aligns with the America First priorities people voted for,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement to Reuters.

On Friday, a three-judge panel ruled 2-1 against President Trump.

The three-judge panel included: Majority: Pillard (Obama), Pan (Biden), and Dissent: Walker (Trump).

Reuters reported:

A U.S. appeals court on Friday declined to block a lower court ruling that said President Donald Trump’s administration could not unilaterally cut billions of dollars of foreign aid, requiring the administration to quickly move to spend funds on projects authorized by Congress.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit made its ruling just days after a lower court ruled that the administration should take steps to spend roughly $11 billion on foreign aid projects before Congressional authorization for the spending expires in September.

Earlier this year, Judge Ali temporarily blocked President Trump from cancelling foreign aid contracts.

Judge Ali ordered the Trump Admin to restore funding for the foreign aid contractors after Trump froze US foreign aid for 90 days.

Keep reading

Judge Orders Trump Admin To Release Billions In Frozen Foreign Aid Funding

A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration cannot withhold billions of dollars in foreign assistance approved by Congress, including aid that the White House recently said it would not spend.

The Trump administration must release $11.5 billion in foreign aid that is set to expire at the end of the month, said U.S. District Judge Amir Ali in a Sept. 3 decision.

“There is not a plausible interpretation of the statutes that would justify the billions of dollars they plan to withhold,” Ali wrote in his ruling.

“To be clear, no one disputes that Defendants have significant discretion in how to spend the funds at issue, and the Court is not directing Defendants to make payments to any particular recipients. But Defendants do not have any discretion as to whether to spend the funds.”

The Trump administration last week requested that Congress rescind $4.9 billion in foreign aid. The $11.5 billion figure includes the $4.9 billion.

In accordance with the Impoundment Control Act, a rescission is when the White House requests Congress to reverse government funding that has been appropriated by Congress. Typically, it must be approved within 45 days of the request being sent to Congress, or else the money must be spent.

Given that this request was made within 45 days of the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, the cancellation could take effect without Congress approving it. This maneuver is known as a pocket rescission.

Ali wrote that the funding is to be spent since Congress appropriated it.

“It is undisputed the relevant appropriations acts have been valid law from the time they were enacted to today. For almost all that period, Defendants did not even dispute that the laws were mandatory and required them to spend the funds,” he wrote. “The President never asked Congress to rescind the funds at issue even though he successfully sought rescission of analogous funds in May 2025.”

The Trump administration filed a notice of appeal on Sept. 4.

“President Trump has the executive authority to ensure that all foreign aid is accountable to taxpayers and aligns with the America First priorities people voted for,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement.

Keep reading

‘Coalition of the Willing’ Ready to Deliver Long-Range Missiles to Ukraine — What Could Go Wrong?

Members of the “Coalition of the Willing” have expressed their readiness to supply Ukraine with long-range missiles, the Downing Street said on Thursday.

The meeting took place in Paris earlier on Thursday in a hybrid format, chaired by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron.

“The Prime Minister also welcomed announcements from Coalition of the Willing partners to supply long range missiles to Ukraine to further bolster the country’s supplies,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin previously stated that Ukrainian forces could only carry out such operations with NATO personnel involved, signaling direct Western participation in the conflict. This could fundamentally change the nature of the confrontation, with NATO members effectively fighting against Russia.

Keep reading

The Price of Genocide: How US Funding Sustains an Unraveling Israeli Economy

In an important step toward the economic isolation of Israel due to its genocide in Gaza, Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global has decided to divest from yet more Israeli companies.

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund is the world’s largest, with total investments in Israel once estimated at $1.9 billion. The decision to divest was taken gradually but is consistent with the Norwegian government’s growing solidarity with Palestine and rising criticism of Israel.

Taking a leading role along with Spain, Ireland, and Slovenia, Norway has been a vocal European critic of the Israeli genocide and man-made famine in Gaza, actively contributing to the International Court of Justice’s investigation into the genocide, and formally recognizing the state of Palestine in May 2024. This diplomatic and legal stance, coupled with its financial divestment, represents a coherent and escalating effort to hold Israel accountable for the ongoing extermination of Palestinians.

The Israeli economy was already in a state of freefall even before the genocide. The initial collapse was related to the deep political instability in the country, a result of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his extremist government’s attempt to co-opt the judicial system, thus compromising any semblance of “democracy” remaining in that country. This resulted in a significant lowering of investor confidence.

The war and genocide, beginning on October 7, 2023, only accelerated the crisis, pushing an already fragile economy to the brink. According to reports from the Israel Ministry of Finance, foreign direct investments in Israel fell by an estimated 28% in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.

Any supposed recovery in foreign investments, however, was deceptive. It was not the outcome of a global rallying to save Israel, but rather a consequence of a torrent of US funds pouring in to help Israel sustain both its economy and the genocide in Gaza, along with its other war fronts.

Israel’s Gross Domestic Product was estimated by the World Bank to be around $540 billion by the end of 2024. The war on Gaza has already taken a considerable bite out of Israel’s entire GDP. Estimates from Israel itself are complex, but all data points to the fact that the Israeli economy is suffering and will continue to suffer in the foreseeable future. Citing reports from the Bank of Israel and the Ministry of Finance, the Israeli business newspaper Calcalist reported in January 2025 that the cost of the Israeli war on Gaza had already reached more than $67.5 billion. That figure represented the costs of the war up to the end of 2024.

Keeping in mind that the ongoing war costs continue to rise exponentially, and with other consequences of the war – including divestments from the Israeli market by Norway and other countries – future projections for the Israeli economy look very grim. The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics reported that the Israeli economy, already in a constant state of contraction, shrunk by another 3.5% in the period between April and June 2025.

This collapse is projected to continue, even with the unprecedented US financial backing of Tel Aviv. Indeed, without US help, the precarious Israeli economy would be in a much worse state. Though the US has always propped up Israel – with nearly $4 billion in aid annually – the US help for Israel in the last two years was the most generous and critical yet.

Keep reading

Guess What DOGE Found Your Money Is Funding Now!

There are times when reading a list of projects funded by the United States federal government sounds more like parody than reality.

The Department of Government Efficiency — unlike Congress, it seems — is still working hard every day to identify and eliminate waste and fraud from the federal government funded by our taxpayer dollars. And this week’s update included some profoundly idiotic programs and grants that were, until now, recipients of our hard-earned cash.

DOGE normally releases a contracts update on X on Fridays highlighting some of the stupidest agency contracts that it has discovered in the last week, and this past week‘s was a doozy: “Over the last 5 days, agencies terminated 50 wasteful contracts with a ceiling value of $2.9B and savings of $762M, including a $2.4M DoD contract for ‘transgender health medical evaluation unit services’, a $128.5k DoD contract for ‘LGBTQ magazine advertising campaign’, and a $48.7M USAID contract for ‘the Belarus Regional Initiative to provide transition activities in Belarus and other countries in Europe’.” 

One wonders what exactly that is supposed to mean. Whenever a description is that vague and meaningless, you can guess it covers up something shady.

In conclusion, the X post stated, “DOGE wishes the hardworking American taxpayers a great Labor Day weekend!”

DOGE also had an interesting contracts update last week, on August 24: “Over the last 5 days, agencies terminated 163 wasteful contracts with a ceiling value of $1.9B and savings of $647M, including, a $35M USAID contract to ‘acquire contractor support to establish and manage a flexible, quick response mechanism supporting activities that will support democracy and stability in El Salvador’, a $280k DOI contract for ‘horse mounted patrol groom services’.” You can bust your brains trying to figure out why the heck we would be funding horse mounted patrol groom services. I don’t know about you, but I can’t think of any good reason.

Keep reading

Trump Admin Moves To Cut Another $4.9 Billion In Foreign Aid Funding

President Donald Trump on Aug. 28 proposed the cancellation of $4.9 billion in appropriated funds for foreign aid spending, using a maneuver that could effectively bypass the congressional approval process normally required to rescind the funds.

The funds were allocated to the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development—which is in the process of being closed by the Trump administration—during the Fiscal Year 2025 appropriations process.

Under the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, the government must make a rescission request to Congress, which then has 45 days to approve the cancellation of appropriated funds. A “pocket rescission,” however, refers to such requests made within 45 days of the end of the fiscal year, which is Sept. 30. In these cases, the funds are withheld during the 45-day congressional review period, and if Congress doesn’t act before the fiscal year ends, the funds expire.

“Last night, President Trump cancelled $4.9 billion in America Last foreign aid using a pocket rescission,” the Office of Management and Budget, a cabinet-level agency in the Executive Office of the President, wrote on X on Aug. 29.

Pocket rescissions are uncommon, and the last one attempted was in 1983, when President Ronald Reagan sought to cut $2 million appropriated to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Trump, during his second term, has successfully requested some rescissions from Congress. A rescissions bill canceling $9.4 billion in funding for foreign aid and public broadcasters was approved by Congress in July.

Rescission requests, when presented to Congress, may be enacted through legislation with simple majorities voting in favor in both houses, meaning that the minority has no leverage to stop or alter the process. Democrats in Congress, who are the minority in both houses, have thus protested against Trump’s rescissions, but often to no avail.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in an Aug. 29 statement that the announcement of the administration’s rescissions plan “is further proof” that Trump and congressional Republicans are set on “rejecting bipartisanship and ‘going it alone’ this fall.”

Keep reading

US Announces Plan To Arm Ukraine With Thousands of Long-Range Cruise Missiles

The Trump administration has announced that it approved an $825 million weapons deal that will arm Ukraine with thousands of Extended Range Attack Munition (ERAM) air-launched missiles, which can hit targets up to 280 miles away, a significantly further range than other missiles that the US has sent into the proxy war.

The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said the deal will provide Ukraine with 3,350 ERAM missiles, 3,350 Embedded Global Positioning System (GPS)/Inertial Navigation Systems, and other related equipment.

The arms sale will be funded in part by Foreign Military Financing (FMF), a State Department program that provides foreign governments with money to buy US-made weapons. Other funding for the deal will come from Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway.

The Wall Street Journal first reported on Saturday that the Trump administration had approved the deal and that the missiles would start arriving in Ukraine within six weeks. The report also said that the administration had been quietly blocking Ukraine from using US-provided missiles in attacks on Russian territory, but the provision of the ERAMs suggests that might change.

Keep reading

Taxpayers On Hook For $3.5 Billion To Replenish Munitions US Used Defending Israel

Taxpayers are yet again on the hook for America’s supposed “closest Middle East ally” as the Pentagon is planning to allocate at least $3.5 billion to restock weapons used in defense of Israel.

A Bloomberg report issued this week has reviewed Department of Defense budget documents prepared through mid-May. Emergency expenditures are highlighted which include US combat operations “executed at the request of or in coordination with Israel for the defense of Israeli territory, personnel or assets during attacks by Iran” or its proxies.

The largest single portion of the funding is $1 billion that is earmarked for replenishing Standard Missile interceptors, specifically the SM-3 IB Threat Upgrade models made by Raytheon and deployed by US Navy ships to intercept ballistic missiles.

Each of these big missiles are estimated to be between $9 million and $12 million, and these were used in the initial April 2024 flare-up and brief round of fighting between Israel and Iran.

The US assisted Israel following the Netanyahu government’s airstrike on the Iranian embassy in Damascus – which was the first such deliberate attack by a sovereign government on a foreign embassy in history (the lone precedent being the Chinese embassy strike in Belgrade in 1999, which the US apologized for as an ‘accident’).

The second-largest funding request in the documents is $204 million to restock THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) interceptors, produced by Lockheed Martin at a price tag of about $13 million each.

All of this will be pushed through despite recent polls showing public support for Israel being at a recent all-time low. The American public is also generally war-weary, given the now years-long conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, and the fact that Washington has sunk billions into supporting one side of each war.

Keep reading

US To Fund $500 Million Boeing KC-46 Tanker Aircraft Deal for Israel

The Israeli Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday that it will be signing a contract to purchase two Boeing-made KC-46 tanker aircraft in a deal worth about $500 million that will be funded by US military aid.

“This is a follow-on contract with the US Government for procuring two advanced refueling aircraft in addition to four previously purchased KC-46 aircraft. This will expand the IDF’s new refueling fleet to six aircraft,’ the Defense Ministry wrote on Facebook.

“The new aircraft will be equipped with Israeli systems and adapted to the IAF’s operational requirements. The contract’s scope is estimated at approximately half a billion USD and is funded through US aid,” the ministry added.

The US provides Israel with $3.8 billion in military aid annually, including $3.3 billion in Foreign Military Financing, a State Department program that gives foreign governments money to purchase US weapons.

Since October 7, 2023, the US has provided Israel with significantly more aid, including an additional $3.5 billion in FMF that was part of a $17 billion military assistance package for Israel tucked into a $95 billion foreign aid bill authorized by Congress and signed by President Biden last year.

Keep reading