The Cost of Abandonment: Trump’s Aid Cuts Could Kill 14 Million by 2030
A third of the projected deaths are children. Researchers say the scale of the crisis rivals a pandemic.
President Donald Trump's move to cut most of the US funding towards foreign humanitarian aid could cause more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030, according to research published in The Lancet medical journal. A third of those at risk of premature deaths were children, researchers projected. Low- and middle-income countries were facing a shock "comparable in scale to a global pandemic or a major armed conflict," said Davide Rasella, who co-authored the report. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in March that over 80% of all programmes at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) had been cancelled. The Trump administration has taken aim at what it sees as wasteful spending. The controversial cutbacks - which were condemned around the world by humanitarian organisations - were overseen by Elon Musk. The USAID funding cuts "risk abruptly halting - and even reversing - two decades of progress in health among vulnerable populations," said the statement from Rasella, a researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health. Rasella and his fellow researchers estimated that USAID funding had prevented more than 90 million deaths in developing countries between 2001 and 2021. They modelled the potential impact on death rates with an assumption that funding would be cut by 83% – the figure provided by Rubio in March. The researchers suggested that the cuts could lead to a "staggering" number of more than 14 million avoidable deaths by 2030. That would include the deaths of more than 4.5 million children under the age of five, they added - BBC
Doctors in Gaza warn that thousands of babies could die, as baby formula supplies run dry under Israel’s blockade. At least 95 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks throughout Gaza, including more than a dozen desperate people seeking food at US-Israel-backed aid distribution sites. In the deadliest single strike of the day, Israeli fighter jets bombed an internet café with a children’s birthday party under way, killing at least 39 people. A senior Hamas official told Al Jazeera, “we are determined to seek a ceasefire that will save our people”, and accused Israel of “sabotaging the negotiations” - Al Jazeera
Europe must act quickly to face extreme heat as temperatures surpass 40 degrees and thousands of excess deaths are predicted in the coming days. Southern Europe is in the midst of a soaring heatwave with temperatures reaching up to 46 degrees Celsius in Spain’s Huelva region — a new national record for June. Meanwhile, Italy, Greece, Portugal and the Western Balkans are also facing scorching highs, along with wildfires and civilian victims. A World Health Organization expert issued a stark warning on Monday, calling for more action to stop tens of thousands of “unnecessary and largely preventable deaths.” “It’s no longer a question of if we will have a heatwave, but how many are we going to experience this year and how long will they last,” said Marisol Yglesias Gonzalez, technical officer for climate change and health at the WHO in Bonn - Politico
Thailand’s Constitutional Court suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra on Tuesday, pending an ethics investigation over accusations she was too deferential to a senior Cambodian leader when the two discussed a recent border dispute in a phone call that was leaked. Paetongtarn has faced growing dissatisfaction over her handling of the dispute, which involved an armed confrontation on May 28 in which one Cambodian soldier was killed. In a call with Cambodian Senate President Hun Sen, she attempted to defuse tensions — but instead set off a string of complaints and public protests by critics who accused her of being too fawning. Paetongtarn’s suspension raises the possibility of renewed instability in Thailand, a still fragile democracy that has suffered several similar bouts of uncertainty. At the root of much of that were concerns from the conservative establishment, including the military, that the political dynasty started by Paetongtarn’s father, the popular but divisive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, was growing too powerful. She is the third member of her family to hold the prime minister’s office — and the third to face the possibility of removal before her term ended. Thaksin was removed from office in a 2006 coup and driven into exile, while his sister, and his sister, former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawtra, was removed by a court order in 2014, followed shortly after by a coup - AP
During a recent visit to Southeast Asia, I observed firsthand the difficult—and often precarious—conditions faced by gig economy workers who underpin our culture of convenience. From Grab and Uber drivers to food delivery riders, many endure punishing hours, low pay, and little to no social protections. Harassment and health risks are common, yet their work is often invisible to those who rely on them. Credit to Bangkok-based photojournalist Nathalie Jamois whose exhibition and talk at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand brought this issue into sharper focus.
The US has lifted several sanctions on Russia tied to civil nuclear energy. A new Treasury license issued June 27th allows transactions with major Russian banks including Gazprombank, Sberbank, and VTB to support foreign nuclear projects started before November 2024. Hungary’s €12B Paks-2 plant with Rosatom is expected to benefit directly. (DoT)
Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have signed a peace deal in Washington to end fighting in eastern DRC, although questions remain over what the agreement means and who stands to benefit, with President Donald Trump using the occasion to boast that the US had secured lucrative mineral rights. (Guardian)
Azerbaijani police detained Igor Kartavykh, executive director, and Yevgeny Belousov, editor-in-chief of Sputnik Azerbaijan, after a police operation at their office. They’re accused of illegal financing despite Sputnik Azerbaijan’s accreditation being suspended in February 2025. Sputnik is a Russian state-owned news agency known for promoting the Russian government’s viewpoint worldwide. Sputnik calls the accusations "absurd and unfounded." (Bastillepost)
A top Chinese Admiral has been dismissed from the body that oversees the Chinese military in the latest sign that Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption drive has reached the highest echelons of the armed forces. Miao Hua, a senior Admiral from the PLA Navy, was the Director of the Political Work Department of the Central Military Commission (CMC), making him responsible for ideology and loyalty within the armed forces. The six-person CMC is one of the most powerful institutions in China and is headed by Xi himself. On Friday, a statement from the Chinese government confirmed that Miao had been dismissed. He was suspended last year and placed under investigation for “serious violations of discipline”, a byword for corruption. He was expelled from the National People’s Congress, China’s parliament, in April. The dismissal makes Miao one of the highest-ranking CMC officials to be purged since the 1960s, and the latest in a rush of senior military figures targeted. He Weidong, a Vice-Chair of the CMC, is also reported to be under investigation - Guardian
Russian-backed organizations are running Soviet-style military-patriotic games for children on the Spanish island of Tenerife, in what experts warn is a broader Kremlin to militarize youth and export pro-Russian propaganda in Western societies. The activities – disguised as cultural and sporting events – are a modern revival of Soviet-era indoctrination programs now targeting children of Russian decent in Spain. El Mundo is reporting “a Moscow-directed youth militarization program organized a modern version of the Soviet-era military-patriotic games on the Canary Islands, adapted for children of Spanish descent with Russian roots. Activities included ‘field kitchen,’ ‘letters from the front,’ and ‘counterintelligence.’ “Seen from a distance, they could have been mistaken for any of those Canary Island children who drop by the Forestal Park Tenerife with their parents to spend a healthy and innocent day of picnicking and adventures in the protected landscape of Las Lagunetas,” the newspaper reported. On May 10, the Canary Islands hosted an event for children with Russian heritage called “Zarnitsa 2.0.” - a sporting cover for paramilitary training rooted in Soviet traditions. Originally designed for Russian children, “it has since expanded to include Ukrainian children from occupied territories and now children from Spanish-Russian families,” the article reads. In March, the publication Crónica revealed that the Association of Russian Compatriots in Spain had sent over 70 Spanish children to the Artek camp in occupied Crimea. This initiative was organized in cooperation with other Kremlin-controlled organizations under the Russian federal agency “Rossotrudnichestvo.”
Canadian attitudes toward the United States have soured further during U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war, a new poll suggests, with a growing majority of Canadians avoiding U.S. goods and travel compared to four months ago. The new Ipsos poll conducted exclusively for Global News, released Tuesday in time for Canada Day, found around three-quarters of Canadians surveyed say they intend to avoid travel to the U.S. — up 10 points since February — while the number of people avoiding U.S.-made goods has risen five points to 72 per cent. Asked if they think less of the U.S. as a country because of Trump’s various attacks on Canada’s economy and sovereignty, 77 per cent of those polled said they agree, with nearly half saying they felt strongly. That number was also up by nine points. “Canadian anger against Trump and the U.S. administration does not really appear to be waning,” said Kyle Braid, senior vice president of Ipsos Public Affairs. The poll also found Canadian pride is surging after years of declines, along with Canadians saying they plan to attend Canada Day festivities this year - Global News
The journals…
Another count, cited by the Financial Times
forecasts that a cut of two-thirds to US global health and humanitarian funding would “plausibly cause a million deaths in the next 12 months alone.”