Trump administration

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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.

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Reversing U.S. policy on Cuba will not improve human rights, experts say

Human rights experts are warning about negative impacts from U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to revive some of the trade and travel restrictions with Cuba that former President Barack Obama had relaxed in an effort to improve relations between the two countries. Many had said the sanctions against Cuba had accomplished little, other than to undermine the economic opportunities of Cubans.

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G7 summit in Italy may drop migration from agenda, despite dramatic increase in child refugees traveling alone

More than 300,000 children traveled alone as refugees or migrants in 2015 and 2016 – a fivefold increase from 2010 – UNICEF officials said today, reflecting a surge in the number of people fleeing conflict and poverty. UNICEF officials hope that the data will move the seven leading economies to adopt measures at the G7 Summit in Italy that would protect refugee and migrant children. Meanwhile, the U.S. is putting pressure on the Italian government to drop the topic of migration from the G7 meeting later this month.

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U.S. seeks to cut U.N. funding by more than half, according to report

The Trump administration wants to cut U.S. contributions to the U.N. by more than 50 percent, according to a report from Foreign Policy. The reduction is significantly more than what was set out in a draft executive order leaked in late January. And the proposal would come on top of a proposed 37 percent cut to the U.S. Agency for International Development expected to be in the administration’s 2018 budget proposal, to be released on Thursday.