Credit: Orlando Sierra / AFP
The United States, the world’s biggest donor, froze virtually all foreign aid on Friday, making exceptions only for emergency food, and military funding for Israel and Egypt.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent an internal memo days after President Donald Trump took office vowing an “America First” policy of tightly restricting assistance overseas.
“No new funds shall be obligated for new awards or extensions of existing awards until each proposed new award or extension has been reviewed and approved,” said the memo to staff seen by AFP.
The sweeping order appears to affect everything from development assistance to military aid — including to Ukraine, which received billions of dollars in weapons under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden as it tries to repel a Russian invasion.
The directive also means a pause of at least several months of US funding for PEPFAR, the anti-HIV/AIDS initiative that buys anti-retroviral drugs to treat […]
There goes Ukraine!!! What has been obvious for the last number of months is that Putin is not on No.2’s side and has even posted things that humiliate him. So why is he harming Ukraine when they are clearly on our side and want nothing more than being in NATO and running their own country. Just let those damn Russians keep the Donbas and get the heck out of there!