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Thursday

United States Agency for International Development (USAID) supporters hold banners as USAID workers retrieve their personal belongings from the USAID's headquarters in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025.

United States Agency for International Development (USAID) supporters hold banners as USAID workers retrieve their personal belongings from the USAID's headquarters in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP hide caption

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Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

Politics

USAID workers return to HQ to clear their desks, as Trump dismantles the agency

Workers who served in the U.S. Agency for International Development were allowed a final and brief visit back to their offices to clear out their belongings on Thursday.

USAID workers return to HQ to clear their desks, as Trump dismantles the agency

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Wednesday

The Trump administration's freeze of foreign aid has resulted in the loss of at least $69.7 million in aid programs across the Philippines. Pictured is a pharmacy at a community center in Manila, which is operated by LoveYourself. The nonprofit, which has provided free HIV testing and treatment services, suspended key programs such as free PrEP distribution and HIV self-testing kits due to the funding freeze.

LoveYourself, a nonprofit providing free HIV testing and treatment services in the Philippines, has suspended services due to the Trump administrations freeze of foreign aid. The Philippines has lost about $69.7 million in aid programs across the country. Ezra Acayan/Getty Images/Getty Images AsiaPac hide caption

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Ezra Acayan/Getty Images/Getty Images AsiaPac

Goats and Soda

The Trump administration kills nearly all USAID programs

The Trump administration is terminating thousands of foreign assistance grants and awards, according to a court filing. The move effectively guts the six-decade-old agency.

The Trump administration kills nearly all USAID programs

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YABELO, ETHIOPIA - MARCH 06: Young men taking pictures in front of HIV billboards during the Gada system ceremony in Borana tribe, Oromia, Yabelo, Ethiopia on March 6, 2017 in Yabelo, Ethiopia.

Young men pose for pictures in front of HIV posters in Ethiopia. Eric Lafforgue/Art in All of Us/Corbis via Getty Images/Corbis News hide caption

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Eric Lafforgue/Art in All of Us/Corbis via Getty Images/Corbis News

Goats and Soda

On Thursday word came: No more USAID funds for a clinic that gets HIV meds to kids

Supported by USAID, the Ethiopian clinic provides lifesaving medicine for HIV-positive kids and teens to suppress the virus. First came the 90-day freeze — and now an immediate termination of support.

Health clinic in Ethiopia has been unable to get drugs to HIV positive kids for weeks

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Dean Karlan, professor of economics and finance at Northwestern University and former chief economist for USAID in his office at Northwestern University on February 25. He resigned on Tuesday. He says he reached out to offer help in plotting a future course for the agency but got no response.

Dean Karlan, professor of economics and finance at Northwestern University and former chief economist for USAID, in his office at Northwestern on February 25 — the day he resigned. "I literally just emailed USAID and told them, 'I hereby cancel the contract,'" he told NPR. "And that was it." Beth Rooney for NPR hide caption

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Beth Rooney for NPR

Goats and Soda

Why Dean Karlan, chief economist of USAID, resigned this week

He was hired in 2022 so the aid agency could get 'more bang for our buck' with its projects. He tried to reach out to help in the rebuilding of the agency. On Tuesday he tendered his resignation.

Why Dean Karlan, chief economist of USAID, resigned this week

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Tuesday

Signage for the US government's humanitarian agency USAID is seen on a cargo container beside a tricycle in Manila on Feb. 4.

A cargo container in Manila bears signage for the U.S. government's humanitarian agency USAID. The Trump administration suspended most USAID projects; a judge is now calling for the freeze to be lifted. Jam Sta Rosa/AFP via Getty Images/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Jam Sta Rosa/AFP via Getty Images/AFP via Getty Images

Goats and Soda

Judge tells Trump administration it has less than 2 days to resume USAID funding

U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali said officials have provided no evidence of compliance with repeated orders to unfreeze the money.

TOPSHOT - A patient infected with mpox shows lesions on his body at the treatment centre in Kamituga, South Kivu province in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo on September 20, 2024. Kamituga, one of the localities hardest hit by the epidemic with around a thousand confirmed cases, will be one of the first to receive the doses, according to the provincial health authorities. Kamituga, one of the localities hardest hit by the epidemic with around a thousand confirmed cases, will be one of the first to receive the doses, according to the provincial health authorities.

Lesions can be seen on this mpox patient in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the epicenter of an outbreak in Africa. Glody Murhabazi/AFP via Getty Images/AFP hide caption

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Glody Murhabazi/AFP via Getty Images/AFP

Goats and Soda

Why the good news about the mpox outbreak of 2025 isn't really good after all

The case counts seem to be dropping. But health officials say that's because violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo makes it difficult to get good data. And now U.S. assistance is being disrupted.

Sunday

Holes are seen on the building after signage was removed (top) while black plastic covers the logo of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) at its headquarters in Washington, DC, on February 7, 2025. President Donald Trump on February 7 called for USAID to be shuttered, escalating his unprecedented campaign to dismantle the humanitarian agency.

In early February, the signage was removed from the headquarters of the United States Agency for International Development in Washington, D.C. — one of many actions targeting the foreign aid agency since Donald Trump was inaugurated. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images/AFP hide caption

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Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images/AFP

Goats and Soda

Trump officials will put 4,700 USAID employees on leave and eliminate 1,600 jobs

The decision comes in the wake of a judge's ruling that such a move will not cause irreparable harm to the employees. There will be exceptions for several hundred employees in roles deemed critical.

Friday

Ethiopians wait for their ration of food supplies in February. The U.N.'s World Hunger Programme reports that "nearly 16 million people are food insecure because of drought, floods, desert locusts, COVID-19, conflict and economic shocks." The famine in Ethiopia in the mid-1980s was the impetus for the establishment of FEWS NET, a U.S.-funded famine alert project.

Ethiopians wait for their ration of food supplies in February. The U.N.'s World Hunger Programme reports that in Ethiopia, "nearly 16 million people are food insecure because of drought, floods, desert locusts, COVID-19, conflict and economic shocks." The famine in Ethiopia in the mid-1980s was the impetus for the establishment of FEWS NET, a U.S.-funded famine alert project. Aida Muluneh / For The Washington Post via Getty Images/The Washington Post hide caption

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Aida Muluneh / For The Washington Post via Getty Images/The Washington Post

Goats and Soda

A respected U.S. famine warning system is 'currently unavailable.' What's the impact?

FEWS NET, the U.S. early warning system for famine, shut down after the foreign aid freeze. What are the consequences? And why does the U.S. has a famine early warning system in the first place?

The U.S. shut down its famine warning system. What's the impact?

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Wednesday

Workers removed the sign at the U.S. Agency for International Development building on Feb. 7.

Workers removed the sign at the U.S. Agency for International Development building on February 7. Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images/Getty Images hide caption

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Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images/Getty Images

Goats and Soda

In potential showdown, aid groups demand court find USAID, State officials in contempt

Aid groups are urging a federal judge to find Trump administration officials in contempt to force them to reopen funding to global programs. USAID says it has a legal right to cancel aid contracts.

Signage for the U.S. government's humanitarian agency USAID is seen on a cargo container beside a tricycle in Manila in the Philippines on Feb. 4. USAID announced it was placing its staff in the United States and around the world on administrative leave as it moved to recall employees from overseas postings.

Signage for the U.S. government's humanitarian agency USAID is seen on a cargo container beside a tricycle in Manila in the Philippines on Feb. 4. USAID announced it was placing its staff in the United States and around the world on administrative leave as it moved to recall employees from overseas postings. Jam Sta Rosa/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Jam Sta Rosa/AFP via Getty Images

World

China sees an opportunity as the U.S. cuts aid to groups around the world

President Trump and Elon Musk's efforts to shrink the federal government have cut off all funding to pro-democracy and human rights groups abroad, giving China an opportunity to muscle in.

China sees an opportunity as the U.S. cuts aid to groups around the world

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How USAID cuts hurt American farmers

Jemal Countess/Getty Images Jemal Countess/Getty Images hide caption

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Jemal Countess/Getty Images

The Indicator from Planet Money

How USAID cuts hurt American farmers

The ties between U.S. foreign aid and American agriculture run deep — or at least used to. The U.S. International Agency for Development, or USAID, is the largest provider of humanitarian food aid in the world. Much of that aid comes from U.S. farmers, whose corn, wheat and rice is sold in bulk to the government for USAID's programs. What happens now if those programs end?

How USAID cuts hurt American farmers

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Sunday

Red Cross volunteers in the Philippines unload boxes of relief supplies from the U.S. Agency for International Development. A number of USAID recipients have sued the government over President Trump’s recent order halting foreign aid.

Red Cross volunteers in the Philippines unload boxes of relief supplies from the U.S. Agency for International Development. A number of USAID recipients have sued the government over President Trump's recent order halting foreign aid. Bullit Marquez/AP hide caption

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Bullit Marquez/AP

National

Trump funding freeze halts decades of U.S. democracy work around the world

Congress created several organizations in 1980s to strengthen democratic institutions worldwide. Human rights activists say the freeze is a gift to authoritarians like Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.

The Trump administration's funding cuts are impacting pro-democracy organizations

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Friday

KAMPALA, UGANDA - FEBRUARY 13: A man pictured reading TASO poster inside The AIDS Support Organization(TASO) office on February 13, 2025 in Kampala, Uganda. The AIDS Support Organization(TASO) is an NGO in Uganda that offers an array of HIV and AIDS services, with 50 per cent of its funding coming from The United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Following US President Donald Trump's executive order to freeze all USAID funding for 90 days, TASO's Executive Director Dr. Bernard Etukoit says that amongst their HIV positive clients there is a lot of "panic, fear, and anxiety," about how the cuts could impact their access to treatment and services. An emergency waiver issued by the US Department of State has allowed life-saving humanitarian assistance programs to continue during the freeze, including all but three of TASO's programs, but uncertainty remains for those living with the disease, as well as the network of health workers who support them. (Photo by Hajarah Nalwadda/Getty Images)

A man reads a poster in the office of The AIDS Support Organization in Kampala, Uganda. Half the group's funding is from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The Trump administration froze virtually all foreign aid funds for 90 days, then issued a waiver for life-saving activities. Now a judge has ordered a temporary halt to the freeze. Hajarah Nalwadda/Getty Images hide caption

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Hajarah Nalwadda/Getty Images

Goats and Soda

A judge orders a temporary thaw to Trump's foreign aid freeze. What will that mean?

He wrote that there was no explanation "why a blanket suspension of all congressionally appropriated foreign aid" is needed to review programs. But how funds will start flowing again is unclear.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk delivers remarks alongside President Trump in the Oval Office at the White House.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk delivers remarks alongside President Trump during an executive order signing in the Oval Office at the White House on Tuesday. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images hide caption

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Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Politics

Rounding up what happened with Elon Musk and DOGE this week

Elon Musk has emerged as a key figure in President Trump's plans to reshape the government. Here's a recap of this week with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team he leads.

Thursday

A bouquet of white flowers placed outside the headquarters of the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, is pictured, Friday, Feb. 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

A bouquet of white flowers placed outside the headquarters of the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, is pictured on Feb. 7, 2025, in Washington. Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP hide caption

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Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

Law

Judge orders Trump administration to temporarily allow funds for foreign aid

The order allowing funds to flow again applies to existing contracts before Trump issued his Jan. 20 executive order declaring a freeze on foreign assistance.