Plus, a James Bond takeover. On Today’s Episode: Emergency Food, TB Tests and H.I.V. Drugs: Vital Health Aid Remains Frozen Despite Court Ruling, by Stephanie NolenAgent Orange Twisted Her Limbs. The U.S. Is Abandoning a Vow to Help, by Damien CaveWith Coffins and Taunts, Hamas Hands Dead Hostages to Israel, by Aaron Boxerman and Rawan Sheikh AhmadMultiple Bus Explosions in Israel Put Country on Terrorism Alert, by Ephrat LivniSenate Confirms Patel as Next F.B.I. Director, by Adam Goldman and Devlin BarrettMcConnell Announces He Won’t Seek Re-election, by Annie KarniBotched Care and Tired Staff: Planned Parenthood in Crisis, by Katie BennerAmazon Gains Creative Control Over the James Bond Franchise, by Brooks BarnesTune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Tell us what you think at: [email protected].
Full Episode
From The New York Times, it's The Headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Friday, February 21st. Here's what we're covering. Funding for vital health programs around the world remains frozen, despite a federal judge's order that the Trump administration stop dismantling USAID.
The Times has spoken with people on the ground who work on the aid programs, and they say that the freeze is having life-threatening consequences. They say children in Kenya who may have tuberculosis can't get tested. There's no clean drinking water at refugee camps in Nigeria and Bangladesh.
And people are traveling almost 200 miles in search of HIV medications in Ethiopia because they're no longer available at clinics the U.S. was funding. The Trump administration initially froze all foreign aid, saying it needed to review all of the programs and make sure they were in line with the president's America First agenda.
It's since been improving waivers to restart some of those initiatives, but aid workers say the payments aren't coming through, and the payment system used to disperse the funds isn't working at all. An executive who works with over 100 aid organizations said, quote, waivers without money are just pieces of paper, and you can't run programs with just paper.
The shutdown of global aid programs is also threatening to shatter decades of American diplomacy.
For the past few weeks, I've been looking at the various ways that the dismantling of USAID affects countries that the U.S. is trying to court as allies, especially in Asia.
Damien Cave is the Times bureau chief in Vietnam.
A big part of what aid does in Vietnam is try to clean up the legacy of the Vietnam War. It's unexploded landmines and bombs. It's also dealing with Agent Orange, which was this really horrible herbicide that the American military used during the war and sprayed millions and millions of gallons of this all over the land to try and clear the area of leaves to be able to see the enemy.
It's one of the most noxious substances ever created, and even generations later, It creates birth defects and cancer at higher rates. And so the United States has been working hard with Vietnam to try and clean up this mess. Now, all of that has been stalled and suspended.
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