Donald Trump

World Politics
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Nikki Haley claims credit for already planned cuts to U.N. peacekeeping budget

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley declared victory after member nations agreed to a $600 million cut from the annual peacekeeping budget. Neglected in her Twitter declaration is that the cuts had already been planned, prior to Trump’s election. The UN peacekeeping budget declined from $7.87 billion to $7.3 billion with the U.S. contributing a smaller percentage as compared to last year.

Science
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Threatened U.S. foreign aid program prevents malaria from killing kids in Africa

U.S. President Donald Trump wants to cut funding to one of the government’s most effective global health programs. Trump’s budget proposal reduces support for the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) by nearly half, 44 percent. The PMI was launched by the George W. Bush administration to reduce the spread of malaria around the world. Research published earlier this month shows it has been highly effective.

Basics
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Tillerson’s ‘less is more’ strategy for foreign aid meets bipartisan skepticism in Senate

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spent the past two days in Washington defending proposed massive cuts to the foreign affairs budget, using the ‘less is more’ approach. Critics on both sides of the aisle characterized his proposal to cut the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) by about 30 percent as “reckless” and “divorced from reality.”

Basics
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Bill and Melinda Gates celebrate humanitarian investments in letter to Warren Buffett

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s annual letter is out, crafted as a thank-you note to fellow billionaire and foundation donor Warren Buffett about the benefit and promise of foreign aid. No big surprises in the 2017 Gates Foundation always optimistic annual letter, repeating many of the gains made in global health through expansion of child vaccinations, reductions in child and maternal mortality and the continuing global trend seeing much less of the more extreme forms of poverty. What’s not said in the letter, or is only referred to somewhat obliquely, is perhaps of more significance.

Human Rights
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Oxfam joins Massachusetts lawsuit against Trump travel ban

Oxfam American is taking on the Trump administration over its executive order temporarily banning the entry of people from seven countries and completely halting Syrian refugee resettlement. The Boston-based group joined the ACLU of Massachusetts and state Attorney General Maura Healey in a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order. They argue that the order in unconstitutional and should be repealed.

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