Almost $500 million in food aid is at risk of spoilage as it sits in ports, ships and warehouses after funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, was paused by the Trump administration, according to a Feb. 10 report from a government watchdog.

The report from USAID’s inspector general highlighted the risks of “safeguarding and distribution” of $8.2 billion in unspent humanitarian aid after the Trump administration ordered almost all staff to be placed on leave and ordered a review of U.S. foreign assistance programs.

  • Empricorn@feddit.nl
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    6 days ago

    They would rather this taxpayer-funded food rots than to help hungry people worldwide. With Republicans, the cruelty is the point…

    • dx1@lemmy.ml
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      6 days ago

      I don’t think cruelty is the point. I think it’s a more calculated form of narrative reinforcement.

      • Empricorn@feddit.nl
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        6 days ago

        You’re using “calculated” to describe an administration that’s throwing tantrums like a toddler, tearing down anything good just because it was created by Democrats or bipartisan coalitions.

        They fired the people responsible for our country’s nuclear material with no further plan in place, wanted them back, then realized they had no idea who or how to contact them!

        Project 2025 is coordinated… But I still think it’s in service of cruelty, and hurting those they hate.

        • dx1@lemmy.ml
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          5 days ago

          Yes, that. Always be conscious of what impression some information is giving you, and analyze whether your reaction is based on a full view of the situation, or if it’s just the reaction that the information was shown to you in order to provoke. Because that is precisely the level propaganda operates at. The “they spent years carefully calculating a takeover” narrative is not compatible with the “toddler throwing a tantrum” narrative. Either one, or neither, must be true.