KABUL: The World Health Organization said Monday 80 percent of services that it supports in Afghanistan could shut down by June due to a funding shortage.
The UN health agency said the cash shortfall, which comes amid massive US aid cuts, is tied to a shift in “development aid priorities.”
“Without urgent intervention, over 220 more facilities could close by June 2025, leaving an additional 1.8 million Afghans without access to primary health care,” WHO said in a statement.
The agency said that 167 such operations have already closed due to a lack of financial support.
“The consequences will be measured in lives lost,” said WHO’s Afghanistan chief Edwin Ceniza Salvador.
“This is not just about funding. It is a humanitarian emergency that threatens to undo years of progress in strengthening Afghanistan’s health system,” Salvador added.
WHO has been sounding the alarm since US President Donald Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the United States from the agency.
This pullout and the end of Washington’s contributions put at risk the global measles surveillance network, which until now has been entirely funded by Washington.
Afghanistan saw more than 16,000 suspected measles cases and 111 deaths in January and February, according to WHO.
The figures are disputed by the Taliban authorities, who returned to power in 2021 with the ousting of the US-backed government.
The Taliban government is not recognized internationally and relies largely on NGOs, UN agencies and aid donors to keep the health system afloat.
WHO said Afghanistan is also facing “multiple health emergencies,” including outbreaks of malaria and dengue.
There are ongoing efforts to vaccinate enough children to eradicate polio, which remains endemic in only two countries: Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan.
The lack of funds has also hit Save the Children, which said last week 18 health facilities supported by the charity and its partners have closed.
“Only 14 Save the Children clinics have enough funding to remain open for one more month, and without new financial support, they will be forced to close. These 32 clinics supported over 134,000 children in January alone,” the charity said.
In addition, Afghanistan suffers one of the world’s highest maternal mortality ratios of 638 per 100,000 live births.
This is likely to worsen due to the US funding cuts, with the UN forecasting an additional 1,200 maternal deaths between now and 2028.
Malnutrition is also widespread in the country, which is facing economic, humanitarian and climate crises after being battered by four decades of war.
Ten percent of children under five are malnourished and 45 percent are stunted, the UN says.
WHO says 80 percent of Afghanistan operations risk shutdown by June
https://arab.news/2kdav
WHO says 80 percent of Afghanistan operations risk shutdown by June
- The UN health agency has been sounding the alarm since US President Donald Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the US from the agency
- This pullout and the end of Washington’s contributions put at risk the global measles surveillance network, which until now has been entirely funded by US
US, Ukraine sign economic deal after Trump presses Kyiv to pay back US for help in repelling Russia
WASHINGTON: The US and Ukraine announced on Wednesday an economic agreement after a weekslong press by President Donald Trump on Ukraine to compensate Washington for billions in military and economic assistance to help Ukraine repel the Russian invasion.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a video posted to X that “this partnership allows the United States to invest alongside Ukraine, to unlock Ukraine’s growth assets, mobilize American talent, capital and governance standards that will improve Ukraine’s investment climate and accelerate Ukraine’s economic recovery.”
The announcement comes at a critical moment in the war as Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with leaders of Russia and Ukraine with the brutal fighting dragging on.
The American president has criticized his Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, for steps that he said were prolonging the killing, and he has rebuked Russian President Vladimir Putin for complicating negotiations with “very bad timing” in launching deadly strikes on Kyiv.
Trump on Saturday met with Zelensky on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral.
Ukraine’s Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko in a post on X celebrated the breakthrough.
“Together with the United States, we are creating the Fund that will attract global investment to our country,” she said.
The two sides offered only barebone details about the structure of the deal, but it is expected to give the US access to its valuable rare minerals in the hopes of ensuring continued American support for Kyiv in its grinding war with Russia.
Ukraine’s economy minister and deputy prime minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, flew to Washington on Wednesday to help finalize the deal, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said during an appearance on Ukrainian television. Although the main part of the agreement had been settled, there were still hurdles to overcome, said a senior Ukrainian official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
For Ukraine, the agreement is seen as key to ensuring its access to future US military aid.
“Truly, this is a strategic deal for the creation of an investment partner fund,” Shmyhal said. “This is truly an equal and good international deal on joint investment in the development and restoration of Ukraine between the governments of the United States and Ukraine.”
Trump began his push for a deal in February that he wanted access to Ukraine’s rare earth materials as a condition for continued US support in the war, describing it as reimbursement for the billions of dollars in aid the US has given to Kyiv.
But talks stalled after a tense Oval Office meeting of US and Ukrainian leaders, and reaching an agreement since then has proven difficult and strained relations between Washington and Kyiv.
Negotiations appeared to drag on till shortly before the two sides confirmed an agreement had been signed off on the deal.
Earlier Wednesday, Bessent said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House — hours after Ukrainian officials indicated a deal was nearly finalized — that there was still work to do.
“The Ukrainians decided last night to make some last-minute changes,” Bessent said when asked about reports that Ukraine was ready to agree to the pact. “We’re sure that they will reconsider that. And we are ready to sign this afternoon if they are.”
He didn’t elaborate as to the late changes he said Ukraine made.
The US has been seeking access to more than 20 raw materials deemed strategically critical to its interests, including some non-minerals such as oil and natural gas. Among them are Ukraine’s deposits of titanium, which is used for making aircraft wings and other aerospace manufacturing, and uranium, which is used for nuclear power, medical equipment and weapons. Ukraine also has lithium, graphite and manganese, which are used in electric vehicle batteries.
After Kyiv felt the initial US draft of the deal disproportionately favored American interests, it introduced new provisions aimed at addressing those concerns.
According to Shmyhal, the latest version would establish an equal partnership between the two countries and last for 10 years. Financial contributions to a joint fund would be made in cash, and only new US military aid would count toward the American share. Assistance provided before the agreement was signed would not be counted. Unlike an earlier draft, the deal would not conflict with Ukraine’s path toward European Union membership — a key provision for Kyiv.
The Ukrainian Cabinet approved the agreement Wednesday, empowering Svyrydenko to sign it in Washington. Once signed by both sides, the deal would need to be ratified by the Ukrainian Parliament before it could take effect.
Putin wants answers before committing to a ceasefire
The negotiations come amid rocky progress in Washington’s push to stop the war.
Putin backs calls for a ceasefire before peace negotiations, “but before it’s done, it’s necessary to answer a few questions and sort out a few nuances,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Putin is also ready for direct talks with Ukraine without preconditions to seek a peace deal, he added.
“We realize that Washington wants to achieve quick progress, but we hope for understanding that the Ukrainian crisis settlement is far too complex to be done quickly,” Peskov said during his daily conference call with reporters.
Trump has expressed frustration over the slow pace of progress in negotiations aimed at stopping the war. Western European leaders have accused Putin of stalling while his forces seek to grab more Ukrainian land. Russia has captured nearly a fifth of Ukraine’s territory since Moscow’s forces launched a full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.
Trump has long dismissed the war as a waste of lives and American taxpayer money — a complaint he repeated Wednesday during his Cabinet meeting. That could spell an end to crucial military help for Ukraine and heavier economic sanctions on Russia.
US wants both sides to speed things up
The US State Department on Tuesday tried again to push both sides to move more quickly and warned that the US could pull out of the negotiations if there’s no progress.
“We are now at a time where concrete proposals need to be delivered by the two parties on how to end this conflict,” department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce quoted US Secretary of State Marco Rubio as telling her.
Russia has effectively rejected a US proposal for an immediate and full 30-day ceasefire, making it conditional on a halt to Ukraine’s mobilization effort and Western arms supplies to Kyiv.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed Wednesday that Ukraine had accepted an unconditional truce only because it was being pushed back on the battlefield, where the bigger Russian forces have the upper hand.
UN says Ukrainian civilian casualties are on the rise
Meanwhile, Ukrainian civilians have been killed or wounded in attacks every day this year, according to a UN report presented Tuesday in New York.
The UN Human Rights Office said in the report that in the first three months of this year, it had verified 2,641 civilian casualties in Ukraine. That was almost 900 more than during the same period last year.
Also, between April 1-24, civilian casualties in Ukraine were up 46 percent from the same weeks in 2024, it said.
The daily grind of the war shows no sign of letting up. A nighttime Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, wounded at least 45 civilians, Ukrainian officials said.
Also Wednesday, the Ukrainian Security Service claimed its drones struck the Murom Instrument Engineering Plant in Russia’s Vladimir region overnight, causing five explosions and a fire at the military facility. The claim could not be independently verified.
Palestinian student released on bail as he challenges deportation from US
- People who knew Mahdawi described him as a peaceful figure who sought consensus in a highly-charged political environment, the judge says
Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi was released from US immigration custody on Wednesday, after a judge ruled he should be free on bail to challenge the Trump administration’s efforts to deport him over his participation in pro-Palestinian protests. Mahdawi, born and raised in a refugee camp in the West Bank, was arrested earlier this month upon arriving for an interview for his US citizenship petition. A judge swiftly ordered President Donald Trump’s administration not to deport him from the United States or take him out of the state of Vermont.
After two weeks in detention, Mahdawi walked out of the federal courthouse in Burlington, Vermont, following US District Judge Geoffrey Crawford order that he be released at a court hearing on Wednesday.
In his ruling, Crawford said Mahdawi did not pose a danger to the public and was not a flight risk. The judge drew parallels between the current political climate and the Red Scare and McCarthyism eras of the last century when thousands of people were targeted for deportation due to their political views.
Mahdawi’s release marked a setback for the Trump administration’s efforts to deport pro-Palestinian foreign university students, though other students remain in jail.
“I am saying it clear and loud to President Trump and his cabinet, I am not afraid of you,” Mahdawi said after he emerged from the courthouse, dozens of protesters waving Palestinian flags chanting “no fear” and “yes love.”
“This is a light of hope, hope and faith in the justice system in America,” Mahdawi said of Crawford’s decision to release him.
Trump administration officials have said student visa and green card holders are subject to deportation over their support for Palestinians and criticism of Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza, calling their actions a threat to US foreign policy.
Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said Mahdawi’s privilege of studying in the United States on a green card should be taken away.
“When you advocate for violence, glorify and support terrorists that relish the killing of Americans, and harass Jews, that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “No judge, not this one or any other, is going to stop us from doing that.”
Trump’s critics have called the effort an attack on free speech rights under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
“Mahdawi is here in the United States legally and acted legally,” Vermont’s US Congressional delegation of Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Peter Welch and Representative Becca Balint said in a statement. “The Trump Administration’s actions in this case — and in so many other cases of wrongfully detained, deported, and disappeared people — are shameful and immoral.” Other protesters in similar circumstances include Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil and Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk. Both Khalil and Ozturk remain in custody and have not been charged with any crimes.
Mahdawi, a green card holder, has lived in Vermont for 10 years and is set to graduate from Columbia in May, according to his lawyers.
He has not been accused of any crime. Rather, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said his pro-Palestinian activism could potentially undermine the Middle East peace process.
“They arrested me. What’s the reason? Because I raised my voice, and I said no to war, yes to peace,” Mahdawi said outside the courthouse. “Because I said, ‘Enough is enough. Killing more than 50,000 Palestinians is more than enough.’” In his ruling, Crawford said Mahdawi had exercised his right to advocate for a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Gaza. As a noncitizen resident, he enjoyed the same First Amendment free speech rights as US citizens, Crawford said.
People who knew Mahdawi described him as a peaceful figure who sought consensus in a highly-charged political environment, the judge added.
“Even if he were a firebrand, his conduct is protected by the First Amendment,” Crawford wrote.
US appeals court will not allow DOGE to access Social Security data
- DOGE has swept through federal agencies as part of an effort by Trump and billionaire ally Musk to root out wasteful spending, slash jobs and dramatically overhaul the federal government
A divided federal appeals court rejected the Trump administration’s bid to lift an order blocking the US Social Security Administration from giving the Elon Musk-spearheaded Department of Government Efficiency unfettered access to the data of millions of Americans.
The Richmond, Virginia-based 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals on a 9-6 vote declined to put on hold an injunction issued by a judge in Maryland who concluded the agency likely violated a federal privacy law by providing DOGE unlimited access to records.
Republican President Donald Trump’s administration could potentially now ask the US Supreme Court to intervene. White House spokesperson Liz Huston in a statement said Trump “will continue to seek all legal remedies available to ensure the will of the American people is executed.”
DOGE has swept through federal agencies as part of an effort by Trump and billionaire ally Musk to root out wasteful spending, slash jobs and dramatically overhaul the federal government.
The injunction at issue was secured by two labor unions and an advocacy group that sued SSA, Musk, DOGE and others in February, seeking to stop DOGE members from accessing some of the agency’s most sensitive data systems.
The SSA, which sends checks to 73 million retired and disabled Americans each month, is seen as a crucial provider of benefits.
Musk has falsely claimed that millions of deceased Americans are still receiving Social Security checks and that the system is rife with fraud. Trump, who has repeatedly pledged not to cut Social Security benefits, has also said it is beset with fraud.
US Circuit Judge Robert King in a concurring opinion on Wednesday said “this highly sensitive personal information has long been handed over to SSA by the American people with every reason to believe that the information would be fiercely protected.”
King, who like the other judges who voted against staying the injunction was appointed by a Democratic president, said that principle “has been flouted by the sudden grant to DOGE of unfettered access to SSA systems of record.”
He said evidence cited by Baltimore-based US District Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander in her April 17 decision showed that DOGE had no need for such access, which exceeded that allowed to all but a few experienced and trusted SSA employees.
Six Republican appointees dissented, including US Circuit Judge Julius Richardson, who said the case should have been treated the same as one in which a 2-1 panel of the court allowed DOGE to access data at the US Treasury and Education Departments and the Office of Personnel Management.
But King said the case over Social Security data was “substantially stronger” with “vastly greater stakes.”
The injunction the court left in place also requires DOGE and its affiliates to delete all personally identifiable information from the agency in their possession.
Trump says US kids may get ‘2 dolls instead of 30,’ but China will suffer more in a trade war
- The US president has tried to reassure a nervous country that his tariffs will not provoke a recession
- “Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls. So maybe the two dolls will cost a couple bucks more than they would normally,” Trump said
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Wednesday acknowledged that his tariffs could result in fewer and costlier products in the United States, saying American kids might “have two dolls instead of 30 dolls,” but he insisted China will suffer more from his trade war.
The US president has tried to reassure a nervous country that his tariffs will not provoke a recession, after a new government report showed that the US economy shrank during the first three months of the year.
Trump was quick to blame his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, for any setbacks while telling his Cabinet that his tariffs meant China was “having tremendous difficulty because their factories are not doing business,” adding that the US didn’t really need imports from the world’s dominant manufacturer.
“You know, somebody said, ‘Oh, the shelves are going to be open,’” Trump continued, offering a hypothetical. “Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls. So maybe the two dolls will cost a couple bucks more than they would normally.”
His remarks followed a defensive morning after the Commerce Department reported that the US economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.3 percent during the first quarter. Behind the decline was a surge in imports as companies tried to front-run the sweeping tariffs on autos, steel, aluminum and almost every country. And even positive signs of increased domestic consumption indicated that purchases might be occurring before the import taxes lead to price increases.
Trump pointed his finger at Biden as the stock market fell Wednesday morning in response to the gross domestic product report.
“This is Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s,” the Republican president, who took office in January, posted on his social media site. “Tariffs will soon start kicking in, and companies are starting to move into the USA in record numbers. Our Country will boom, but we have to get rid of the Biden ‘Overhang.’ This will take a while, has NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS.”
But the GDP report gives Democrats ammunition to claim that Trump’s policies could shove the economy into a recession. Democrats’ statements after the GDP report noted how quickly the economy, which still has a healthy 4.2 percent unemployment rate, appears to lose momentum within weeks of Trump returning.
“Trump has been in office for only 100 days, and costs, chaos and corruption are already on the rise,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon “The economy is slowing, prices are going up, and middle-class families are feeling the pinch.”
The report landed as Trump is trying to put the focus on new corporate investments in the US as he spends the week celebrating his 100th day in office. He planned remarks later in the day on the subject.
Trump’s economic message contains some clashing arguments and dismisses data that raises red flags.
He wants credit for an aggressive first 100 days back in the White House that included mass layoffs of federal workers and the start of a trade war with 145 percent in new tariffs against China. He also wants to blame the negative response of the financial markets on Biden, who left office months ago. He’s also saying his tariffs are negotiating tools to generate trade deals but at the same time banking on hundreds of billions of dollars in tariff revenues to help cover his planned income tax cuts.
Trump highlighted the positive aspects of the GDP report at the Cabinet meeting. But that session revealed how his administration is also trying to take credit for policies that involve the Biden administration.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick talked about his recent trip to Arizona to see the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s computer chip factories. The company notes on its website that it announced plans in May 2020, during Trump’s first term when the coronavirus pandemic disrupted the global economy, to build its first plant in Arizona. The company announced a second factory in December 2022, when Biden was in office. After getting up to $6.6 billion in commitments in 2024 from the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, TSMC announced plans for a third plant.
Trump dismissed the importance of the government support that Biden made possible for computer chip factories to open domestically.
“They’re building because of the tariffs,” Trump said.
Yet Democrats are quickly to say that Trump inherited an economy on a steady course of low unemployment and declining inflation that his tariff plans have almost immediately disrupted.
“In just 100 days, President Trump has taken the US economy from strong, stable growth to negative GDP,” said Heather Boushey, a former member of Biden’s White House Council of Economic Advisers. “This astonishing turn of fortune is directly due to the incoherence of his economic policy and his mismanagement of federal policy more generally.”
But White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told reporters that the GDP drop was a “one-shot deal” because of the increased imports, which mathematically subtract from the measure of economic activity. Navarro said that the individual and business income tax cuts planned by Trump would help growth in the months ahead.
“All we’re seeing is good, strong news,” Navarro said. “So the idea that there’s a recession coming should be heavily discounted.”
Trump says Canada’s Carney to visit ‘in next week’
- “I spoke to him yesterday, couldn’t have been nicer and I congratulated him,” Trump told reporters
- “I think we’re going to have a great relationship”
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney would visit Washington in the coming week, hailing him as “very nice” despite tensions over Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats.
“He’s a very nice gentleman and he’s going to come to the White House very shortly, within the next week or less,” Trump said after the leader of Canada’s Liberal Party secured election victory in part by vowing to stand up to the US president.
“I spoke to him yesterday, couldn’t have been nicer and I congratulated him,” Trump told reporters in a cabinet meeting.
Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party had been on track to win the vote but Trump’s attacks, combined with the departure of unpopular former premier Justin Trudeau, transformed the race.
Carney, who replaced Trudeau as prime minister just last month, convinced voters that his experience managing economic crises made him the ideal candidate to defy Trump.
Trump however downplayed any possible tensions with the Canadian — despite repeatedly calling for Carney’s country to become the 51st US state.
“I think we’re going to have a great relationship. He called me up yesterday, he said ‘Let’s make a deal’,” Trump said.
“They both hated Trump, and it was the one that hated Trump, I think, the least that won. I actually think the Conservative hated me much more than the so-called Liberal.”
