WASHINGTON: There’s the executive in a US supply-chain company whose voice breaks while facing the next round of calls telling employees they no longer have jobs.
And a farmer in Missouri who grew up knowing that a world with more hungry people is a world that’s more dangerous.
And a Maryland-based philanthropy, founded by Jews who fled pogroms in Eastern Europe, is shutting down much of its more than 120-year-old mission.
Beyond the impact of the Trump administration’s dismantling of the US Agency for International Development, some 14,000 agency employees and foreign contractors as well as hundreds of thousands of people receiving aid abroad — many American businesses, farms and nonprofits— say the cutoff of US money they are owed has left them struggling to pay workers and cover bills. Some face financial collapse.
US organizations do billions of dollars of business with USAID and the State Department, which oversee more than $60 billion in foreign assistance. More than 80 percent of companies that have contracts with USAID are American, according to aid data company DevelopmentAid.
President Donald Trump stopped payment nearly overnight in a Jan. 20 executive order freezing foreign assistance. The Trump administration accused USAID’s programs of being wasteful and promoting a liberal agenda.
USAID Stop-Work, a group tracking the impact, says USAID contractors have reported that they laid off nearly 13,000 American workers. The group estimates that the actual total is more than four times that.
Here are stories of some Americans whose livelihoods have been upended:
Crop innovation work facing closures
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign — a lab that works with processers, food manufacturers and seed and fertilizer companies to expand soybean usage in 31 countries — is set to close in April unless it gets a last-minute reprieve.
Peter Goldsmith, director and principal investigator at the Soybean Innovation Lab, said the group has helped open international markets to US farmers and made the crop more prevalent in Africa.
For Goldsmith, that kind of steady partnership built on trade and US foreign aid offers the best way to wield US influence, he said.
Goldsmith said innovation labs at other land grant universities also are closing. Without them, Goldsmith worries about what will happen in the countries where they worked — what other actors may step in, or whether conflict will result.
“It’s a vacuum,” he said. “And what will fill that vacuum? It will be filled. There’s no doubt about it.”
A refugee mission is imperiled
For nonprofits working to stabilize populations and economies abroad, the United States was not only the biggest humanitarian donor but an inextricable part of the whole machinery of development and humanitarian work.
Among them, HIAS, a Jewish group aiding refugees and potential refugees, is having to shut down “almost all” of its more than 120-year-old mission.
The Maryland-based philanthropy was founded by Jews fleeing persecution in Eastern Europe. Its mission in recent decades has broadened to include keeping vulnerable people safe in their home country so they don’t have to flee, said HIAS President Mark Hetfield.
Hetfield said the first Trump administration saw the wisdom of that effort. Hias experienced some of its biggest growth during Trump’s first term as a result.
But now, Trump’s shutdown of foreign assistance severed 60 percent of HIAS’s funding, overnight. The group immediately started furloughs among its 2,000 direct employees, operating in 17 states and 20 countries.
The administration calls it a “suspension,” rather than a termination, Hetfield said. “But we have to stop paying our leases, stop paying our employees.”
“It’s not a suspension,” Hetfield said. “That’s a lie.”
Tracking USAID’s effectiveness may fall by the wayside
Keith Ives, a Marine veteran who fell in love with data, has a small Denver-area nonprofit that brought a numbers-crunching relentlessness to his USAID-funded mission of testing the effectiveness of the agency’s programs.
For Ives’ teams, that’s included weighing and measuring children in Ethiopia who are getting USAID support, testing whether they’re chunkier and taller than kids who aren’t. (On average they are.)
Last week, Ives was planning to tell half his full-time staff of 28 that they would be out of a job at the end of the month. Ives’ Causal Design nonprofit gets 70 percent of its work from USAID.
At first, “it was an obsession over how can I fix this,” said Ives, who described his anxiety in the first days of the cutoff as almost paralyzing. “There must be a magic formula. ... I’m just not thinking hard enough, right?“
Now, Ives goes through all-staff call after call, breaking bad news on the impact of USAID’s shutdown. Being transparent with them, it turned out, was the best he could do.
He looks at the US breaking partnerships and contracts in what had been USAID’s six-decade aim of boosting national security by building alliances and crowding out adversaries.
For the US now, “I think for years to come, when we try to flex, I think people are going to go, ‘Yeah, but like, remember 2025?’” Ives said. “’You could just be gone tomorrow.’”
A supplier faces ruin
It takes expertise, cash flow and hundreds of staff to get USAID-funded food and goods to remote and often ill-regulated places around the globe.
For US companies doing that, the administration’s only follow-up to the stop-work orders it sent out after the money freeze have been termination notices — telling them some contracts are not only paused, but ended.
Almost all of those companies have been kept silent publicly, for fear of drawing the wrath of the Trump administration or endangering any court challenges.
Speaking anonymously for those reasons, an executive of one supply-chain business that delivers everything from hulking equipment to food describes the financial ruin facing those companies.
While describing the next round of layoff calls to be made, the executive, who is letting hundreds of workers go in total, sobs.
Farmers may lose market share
Tom Waters, a seventh-generation farmer who grows corn, soybean and wheat near Orrick, Missouri, thinks about his grandfather when he reads about what is happening with USAID.
“I’ve heard him say a hundred times, ‘People get hungry, they’ll fight,’” Waters said.
Feeding people abroad is how the American farmer stabilizes things across the world, he says. “Because we’re helping them keep people’s bellies full.”
USAID-run food programs have been a dependable customer for US farmers since the Kennedy administration. Legislation mandates US shippers get a share of the business as well.
Even so, American farm sales for USAID humanitarian programs are a fraction of overall US farm exports. And politically, US farmers know that Trump has always taken care to buffer the impact when his tariffs or other moves threaten demand for US farm goods.
US commodity farmers generally sell their harvests to grain silos and co-ops, at a per bushel rate. While the impact on Waters’ farm is not yet clear, farmers worry any time something could hit demand and prices for their crops or give a foreign competitor an opening to snatch away a share of their market permanently.
Still, Waters doesn’t think the uncertainty is eroding support for Trump.
“I really think people, the Trump supporters are really going to have patience with him, and feel like this is what he’s got to do,” he said.
The USAID shutdown is upending livelihoods for nonprofit workers, farmers and other Americans
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The USAID shutdown is upending livelihoods for nonprofit workers, farmers and other Americans
- More than 80 percent of companies that have contracts with USAID are American, according to aid data company DevelopmentAid
Russia reduces prison sentence for US soldier convicted of theft
- Staff Sgt. Gordon Black, 34, flew to the Pacific port city of Vladivostok to see his girlfriend and was arrested in May 2024 after she accused him of stealing from her
- Russia has jailed a number of Americans in recent years as tensions between Moscow and the West grew
MOSCOW: An appellate court in Russia’s far east on Monday reduced the prison sentence for an American soldier convicted of stealing and making threats of murder, Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
Staff Sgt. Gordon Black, 34, flew to the Pacific port city of Vladivostok to see his girlfriend and was arrested in May 2024 after she accused him of stealing from her, according to US officials and Russian authorities. A month later, a court in Vladivostok convicted him and sentenced him to three years and nine months in prison. Black was also ordered to pay 10,000 rubles ($115 at the time) in damages.
Black lost one appeal in a regional court that upheld his sentence, but the judge in the 9th Court of Cassation on Monday agreed to reduce his sentence to three years and two months in prison. Black’s defense had asked the court to acquit him of making threats of murder and reduce the punishment for theft, a request the judge partially sustained, according to the RIA report.
Russia has jailed a number of Americans in recent years as tensions between Moscow and the West grew. Some, like corporate security executive Paul Whelan, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and teacher Marc Fogel, were designated by the US government as wrongfully detained and released in prisoner swaps.
A few others remain jailed in Russia on drug or assault convictions. They include Robert Gilman, 72, who was handed a 3 1/2-year sentence after being found guilty of assaulting a police officer following a drunken disturbance on a train, and Travis Leake, a musician who was convicted on drug charges and sentenced to 13 years in prison in July 2024.
Black was on leave and in the process of returning to his home base at Fort Cavazos, Texas, from South Korea, where he had been stationed at Camp Humphreys with the Eighth Army.
The US Army said Black signed out for his move back home and, “instead of returning to the continental United States, Black flew from Incheon, Republic of Korea, through China to Vladivostok, Russia, for personal reasons.”
Under Pentagon policy, service members must get clearance for any international travel from a security manager or commander.
The US Army said last month that Black hadn’t sought such travel clearance and it wasn’t authorized by the Defense Department. Given the hostilities in Ukraine and threats to the US and its military, it is extremely unlikely he would have been granted approval.
Black’s girlfriend, Alexandra Vashchuk, told reporters last year that “it was a simple domestic dispute,” during which Black “became aggressive and attacked” her, stealing money from her wallet. She described Black as “violent and unable to control himself.”
US officials have said that Black, who is married, met Vashchuk in South Korea.
According to US officials, she had lived in South Korea, and last fall she and Black got into some type of domestic dispute or altercation. After that, she left South Korea. It isn’t clear if she was forced to leave or what, if any, role South Korean authorities had in the matter.
Philippines, US launch joint drills aimed at ‘deterrence’
- The drills follow months of confrontations between Beijing and Manila over disputed areas of the South China Sea
- Military ties between the Philippines and US have deepened since the 2022 election of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
MANILA: The Philippine and US air forces kicked off joint exercises Monday aimed at boosting operational coordination and enhancing “strategic deterrence,” Manila’s military said.
The drills follow months of confrontations between Beijing and Manila over disputed areas of the South China Sea, with significantly larger US-Philippine air, land and sea exercises set for late April.
“Enhancing combat readiness and elevating joint mission effectiveness” would be central to the Cope Thunder exercise, Philippine Air Force commander Arthur Cordura said Monday at a ceremony to launch the drills.
Military ties between the Philippines and United States have deepened since the 2022 election of President Ferdinand Marcos, with Manila pushing back on sweeping Chinese claims in the South China Sea that an international tribunal has ruled are without merit.
The US State Department last week approved a long-mooted sale of F-16 fighter jets to the Philippines, though Manila said the deal was “still in the negotiation phase.”
Speaking at Monday’s ceremony, US Major General Christopher Sheppard said that “the pace of our alliance is accelerating.”
Cope Thunder, which will continue through April 18, aims to enhance “asymmetric warfare capabilities,” operational coordination and strategic deterrence, according to the Philippine Air Force.
“Further down the road, we look forward to the seamless transition to exercise Balikatan, which will continue to push the boundaries of our interoperability,” Cordura added.
Like the majority of Balikatan’s planned activities, Cope Thunder will be conducted on northern Luzon island, the area of the Philippines closest to Taiwan.
As China encircled Taiwan with planes and ships in a simulated blockade last week, Philippine military chief Romeo Brawner warned troops that their country would “inevitably” be involved should the self-ruled island be invaded.
Beijing insists Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to forcefully bring under its control.
While Manila later said Brawner’s comments were primarily referencing efforts to retrieve Filipino workers in Taiwan, the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement with Washington gives US forces access to nine bases in the country.
One is a naval facility at Cagayan’s Santa Ana about 400 kilometers from Taiwan.
During a recent visit to Manila, US Defense Chief Pete Hegseth said Washington was “doubling down” on its alliance with the archipelago nation.
“Deterrence is necessary around the world, but specifically in this region, in your country – considering the threats from the Communist Chinese,” he said on March 28.
Dominican Republic steps up forces on Haiti border
- President Luis Abinader also approved construction of a new section of a wall between the two countries
- The Haiti-Dominican Republic border stretches for more than 300 kilometers roughly north to south
SANTO DOMINGO: The Dominican Republic’s President Luis Abinader said Sunday he was deploying more troops to the country’s border with Haiti, which is suffering a grave security crisis.
Abinader added that he had approved construction of a new section of a wall between the two countries, which share the second-largest island in the Caribbean after Cuba.
Abinader, who was first elected in 2020 and secured a second term last year, has made battling immigration a top issue for his administration, conducting mass expulsions of undocumented Haitians.
Around 86,400 were expelled between January and March, after 276,000 were expelled in 2024, according to official data.
“We will step up surveillance of the borders with 1,500 additional troops, on top of 9,500 already deployed,” the president said in a speech on migration.
The Haiti-Dominican Republic border stretches for more than 300 kilometers roughly north to south across the island of Hispaniola.
Abinader said his government would “speed up construction of the border wall,” adding a further 13 kilometers to the 54 already installed.
Around 500,000 Haitian immigrants live in the Dominican Republic, out of a total 10.5 million inhabitants, according to official data.
Three dead in Japan after medical helicopter crash
- A total of six passengers were on board the helicopter heading to a hospital in Fukuoka city from Tsushima Island
- A few hours after losing communication, the six passengers were found by a patrol ship along with the helicopter
TOKYO: Three people died after a medical helicopter crashed into the sea off southwestern Japan, the coast guard said Monday.
A total of six passengers were on board the helicopter heading to a hospital in Fukuoka city from Tsushima Island in the Nagasaki region on Sunday afternoon.
Ryuji Tominaga, the hospital’s head, told reporters that the accident was “utterly heartbreaking.”
A few hours after losing communication, the six passengers were found by a patrol ship along with the helicopter.
The 86-year-old patient, her 68-year-old family member and a 34-year-old doctor were unresponsive and later confirmed dead, the Japan’s coast guard said.
The other three people, found holding on to the helicopter, were conscious, it added.
An official from the helicopter operator said Monday that the pilot and mechanic on board were both experienced and that the weather did not appear to be a problem for the flight.
The national Maritime Safety Committee will carry out investigations, he added.
According to the Asahi Shimbun daily, a helicopter operated by the same company crashed into farmland in the Fukuoka region, killing two people on board, in July last year.
Boeing faces new civil trial over 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash
- The Chicago trial is the first civil case related to the Max 737 plane crash of March 10, 2019 to reach court
- Relatives of 155 of the victims had sued Boeing for wrongful death, negligence and other charges
NEW YORK: Boeing is poised to face a jury trial from Monday over the fatal 2019 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX plane, the first civil case related to the disaster to reach court.
The Chicago trial, expected to last two weeks, was to feature two plaintiffs who lost family members in the calamity.
But one of the complaints was resolved in an out-of-court settlement late Sunday, a judicial source told AFP, in line with most earlier litigants.
Barring another last-minute settlement, the trial will begin Monday with the selection of an eight-person jury.
“We have had some ongoing discussion that may continue throughout the day and the ensuing days,” Robert Clifford, who represents relatives of several crash victims, told the US District court on Wednesday at a pre-trial hearing.
A deal could also be struck even while the trial is underway.
The Boeing plane crashed on March 10, 2019, just six minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa on its way to Kenya, killing all 157 people on board.
Relatives of 155 of the victims had sued Boeing between April 2019 and March 2021 for wrongful death, negligence and other charges.
As of late last month, there were 18 complaints still open against Boeing, a source familiar with the case told AFP.
Sunday’s deal meant that a further three cases had been settled since then, multiple judicial sources told AFP.
This week’s Chicago litigation will now examine only the case of Canadian Darcy Belanger.
Belanger, 46, who lived in Colorado, was a founding member of environmental NGO, the Parvati Foundation, and also worked in construction. He had been visiting Nairobi for a UN conference.
US Judge Jorge Alonso has split the Boeing lawsuits into groups of five or six plaintiffs, annulling a potential trial if all the suits settle.
In November, the aviation giant reached a last-minute agreement with the family of a woman killed in the crash.
The Ethiopian Airlines disaster followed another fatal crash involving a MAX plane — that of a Lion Air jet that crashed in Indonesia in October 2018, killing all 189 people on board.
Boeing also faced dozens of complaints from Lion Air family victims. Just one case remained open, as of the end of March.
Boeing’s settlements with civil plaintiffs have been confidential.
The US manufacturer has “accepted responsibility for the MAX crashes publicly and in civil litigation because the design of the MCAS... contributed to these events,” a Boeing lawyer said during an October hearing.
The MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System) flight stabilizing software was implicated in both the Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air crashes.
The disasters led to congressional hearings, with irate lawmakers demanding answers, and to leadership shake-ups at the aviation company. The entire 737 MAX fleet was grounded for more than 20 months.
Boeing later revised the MCAS program under scrutiny from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which ultimately cleared the jets to resume service in November 2020.
The Chicago trial comes as Boeing also faces a potential criminal trial in June in Texas over the MAX.
That trial follows on from a January 2021 deferred prosecution agreement between Boeing and the US Justice Department over the two MAX crashes.
In May 2024, the Justice Department notified the court that Boeing had violated terms of the accord. That came after a January 2024 incident in which an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX was forced to make an emergency landing when a panel blew out mid-flight.
US District Judge Reed O’Connor last month ordered a jury trial from June 23 after earlier throwing out a proposed settlement between Boeing and the Justice Department.
