Wednesday Briefing: Trump’s Funding Freeze
A legal battle looms over Trump’s funding freeze
Several states were planning yesterday to file suit to block President Trump’s order to freeze trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans. The move, part of an effort to remake the government in his image, followed cuts to international aid introduced last week.
The Trump administration instructed organizations in other countries to stop distributing H.I.V. medications purchased with U.S. aid, even if the drugs had already been obtained and were sitting in local clinics. Several humanitarian organizations in Ukraine said they had been forced to suspend operations that include the delivery of assistance to war veterans and internally displaced people.
And in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, where America’s unexploded bombs from the Vietnam War continue to kill people to this day, the State Department said it was suspending global mine-clearing programs for at least three months.
My colleague Edward Wong, a diplomatic correspondent, said that leaders of aid organizations told him that they had “never seen anything as sweeping as this suspension of U.S. aid.”
“Many programs,” Edward told me, “won’t be able to maintain the integrity of their projects if they stop now and then wait to restart their work later, if they are even allowed to restart.”
In the U.S.: Trump’s order shut down the flow of money to state offices for Medicaid, the program that provides health care to millions of low-income Americans, among other services.
More on Trump
A list of hostages provided by Hamas and confirmed by Israeli intelligence did not specify who was alive and who was dead by name. As a result, eight families have been told that there is a high probability that their relatives will not return alive.
Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steven Witkoff, is scheduled today to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as Israel and Hamas prepared for more talks on cementing the cease-fire. He is also expected to visit the Gaza Strip.
Return home: Tens of thousands of Palestinians have reached their homes in the north for the first time in over a year.
Lebanon: Beirut is struggling to figure out how to clean up the vast amounts of rubble left by the war with Israel.
Analysis: Bloodshed in Lebanon over the weekend and tensions in Gaza have highlighted the fragility of the cease-fires in both places, our Jerusalem bureau chief writes.
Protesters attacked embassies in Congo
Protesters yesterday attacked, looted and set fires at several embassies and a U.N. building in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital, Kinshasa. The French, U.S., Ugandan and Belgian Embassies were among those targeted.
Anger at foreign allies has been rising in Congo over their inability to stop an assault on the key eastern city of Goma by M23, a militia that the U.N. and the U.S. say is controlled by Rwanda.
Context: Western powers have yet to pressure Rwanda to rein in the rebels. Analysts say the country is seeking to occupy Congolese territory and plunder its vast mineral wealth.
Vietnam’s road fatalities are among the highest in Asia, particularly because of chaotic motorbike drivers. The government recently cracked down and instituted steep traffic fines — some of the tickets are more than many people make in a month.
Now there seems to be less chaos on the road, though many drivers see the new rules as more about institutional greed than safety.
Lives lived: François Ponchaud, a French Catholic priest who alerted the world to the atrocities being committed in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, died at 86.
CONVERSATION STARTERS
Mona Lisa is getting her own room
The Mona Lisa’s famous smile will soon greet visitors from a new exhibition space at the Louvre Museum. Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, said yesterday that the masterpiece would be moved as part of a sweeping renovation of the museum to address overcrowding.
Nearly nine million people visit the Louvre every year, and an estimated 80 percent of those are there for the Mona Lisa. Macron aims to increase visitors to 12 million a year and raise the ticket prices for those from outside the E.U. to pay for the renovation.
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That’s it for today. See you tomorrow. — Emmett
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