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DOGE chief Elon Musk revealed details about his thought process on endorsing President Trump during a sit-down interview with Trump and Fox News anchor Sean Hannity on Tuesday night that the president said he had not heard before.

‘I was going to do it anyway,’ Musk said during the interview that aired Tuesday night when Hannity mentioned that his endorsement of Trump came after an attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania on the campaign trail.

‘That was it?’ Hannity said.

‘That was a precipitating event,’ Musk said. 

‘That sped it up a little bit?’ Trump then said to Musk. ‘I didn’t know that.’

Musk responded, ‘It sped it up, but I was going to do it anyway.’

Musk announced that he ‘fully supports’ former President Trump after gunshots rang out at his Pennsylvania rally in July in a move that many, including some Democrats, believe played a significant role in Trump’s campaign.

‘Not even just that he has endorsed [Trump], but the fact that now he’s becoming an active participant and showing up and doing rallies and things like that,’ Dem. Sen. John Fetterman told the New York Times in October, explaining that the enormously successful Tesla and SpaceX CEO is an attractive figure for the kinds of voters Harris needs to win.

‘I mean, [Musk] is incredibly successful, and, you know, I think some people would see him as, like, a Tony Stark,’ said Fetterman, referencing the popular Marvel Comics character. ‘Democrats, you know, kind of make light of it, or they make fun of him jumping up and down and things like that. And I would just say that they are doing that at our peril.’

In an interview with CNN, Fetterman added, ‘Endorsements, they’re really not meaningful often, but this one is, I think. That has me concerned.’

Fox News Digital’s Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report

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DOGE’s Elon Musk opened up in an interview alongside President Trump with Fox News Sean Hannity about a dinner party where he said he realized how ‘real’ Democratic animosity toward Trump can be.

‘I happened to mention the president’s name and it was like they got shot with a dart in the jugular that contained like methamphetamine and rabies,’ Musk said in the Tuesday night interview while recounting a situation where he mentioned Trump’s name at a dinner party and quickly received pushback.

Musk imitated people at the party going crazy and questioned why they couldn’t have a normal conversation.

‘It’s like they’ve become completely irrational,’ Musk said, adding in the interview that he didn’t realize the severity of ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ was until he attended that dinner party.

During another point in the interview, Hannity asked if Musk would recuse himself from DOGE efforts if there was ever a conflict of interest.

‘If there’s a conflict he won’t be involved,’ Trump said. ‘I wouldn’t want that and he won’t want it.’

‘Right, and also I’m getting sort of a daily proctology exam,’ Musk added. ‘It’s not like I’ll be getting away for something in the dead of night.’

Musk and Trump sat down for a wide-ranging interview with Hannity where they discussed the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) work, the first 100 days of the Trump administration and more. It marks the duo’s first joint television interview.

‘He’s been so unfairly attacked,’ Musk said of Trump during the interview. ‘It’s really outrageous.’

‘I’ve spent a lot of time with the President, and not once have I seen him do anything mean or cruel or wrong.’

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Medicaid is quickly emerging as a political lightning rod as House Republicans negotiate on a massive bill to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Some Republican lawmakers are worried about the level of spending cuts being sought by fiscal hawks to offset the cost of Trump’s policies, arguing the current deal could force potentially unworkable cuts on Medicaid and other federal safety net programs.

‘I’m concerned that $880 billion out of [the House Energy & Commerce Committee] is likely very steep cuts to Medicaid – and it’s the very thing President Trump asked us not to do,’ Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., told Fox News Digital on Tuesday.

GOP lawmakers are working to pass a broad swath of Trump policies – from investments in defense and border security to extending his 2017 tax cuts and eliminating taxes on tips – via the budget reconciliation process. The mechanism allows the party in control of both houses of Congress to pass a tax and budget bill without help from the opposing party.

But conservative spending hawks are looking for deep cuts in federal dollars to offset money going toward Trump’s priorities. The current resolution advancing through the House would aim to cut government spending by at least $1.5 trillion, while allocating $4.5 trillion toward Trump’s tax cuts.

An amendment added after conservatives balked at that deal would cut funding going toward Trump’s tax cuts by $500 billion if at least $2 trillion total spending cuts were not reached. 

Even before the additional cuts, however, some Republicans like Bacon are concerned that the $880 billion that the Energy & Commerce Committee is tasked with cutting will negatively impact their constituents.

Conservatives have pushed back, arguing that significant cuts could be found in Medicaid work requirements. But skeptics of that argument say that the level of spending cuts being sought go past what work requirements can cover.

‘We want to ensure that it’s not going to hurt… our hospitals, or our organizations that serve the developmentally disabled, and we’re asking for clarity on where the $880 billion in savings come from,’ Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., the only House Republican representing part of New York City, told Fox News Digital.

She did agree with GOP rebels that there was ‘mismanagement’ and waste to root out in those programs.

Malliotakis and other Republicans on the Ways & Means Committee tasked with writing tax policy are also uneasy about the new amendment that could cut funds allocated to their panel.

‘I don’t think that is doable without affecting beneficiaries, and I’ve expressed that concern to leadership and in talking to some of my colleagues,’ Malliotakis said.

Another House Republican who declined to be named told Fox News Digital that ‘there’s a bunch of us’ who think the proposed cuts ‘are too big.’

‘They’re trying to sell us $1.5 trillion, but in reality, there’s another $500 billion attached to it that they’re trying to cut. And it’s not going to pass,’ the GOP lawmaker said.

Meanwhile, Rep. Rob Bresnahan, R-Pa., who unseated a Democrat in a close race last year, wrote on X over the weekend, ‘I ran for Congress under a promise of always doing what is best for the people of Northeastern Pennsylvania. If a bill is put in front of me that guts the benefits my neighbors rely on, I will not vote for it.’

The budget reconciliation process allows legislation to advance with only GOP votes by lowering the threshold for Senate passage from two-thirds to a simple 51-seat majority. The House already operates on a simple majority.

But currently, Republicans can lose just one vote in the House to pass anything on party lines – meaning they can afford almost no dissent to get their reconciliation bill over the line.

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., a conservative on the House Budget Committee who would not have supported the resolution last week without the last-minute amendment, told reporters last week, ‘Medicaid’s got to be in it. You don’t get to the [$1.5 trillion figure], much less two, without it.’

‘And it’s not cuts to Medicaid. Work requirements have an $800 billion savings on it… able-bodied 40-year-old men who can work don’t need to be on Medicaid,’ Norman said.

Democrats are waiting to pounce on the discord.

The House Majority PAC, which is aligned with House Democratic leadership, released a memo on Tuesday accusing Republicans of seeking to make ‘deep cuts’ to Medicaid ‘to fund $4.5 trillion in tax cuts to Elon Musk and other billionaires.’

‘In battleground congressional districts across the country, House Republicans are putting Medicaid on the chopping block – a move that would rip life-saving health care away from tens of thousands of their own constituents – roughly half of whom are children,’ the memo said.

But according to Ways & Means Republicans, the average American household could see taxes raised by over 20% if the Trump tax cuts expired.

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Nearly everyone agrees that the federal government has become this bloated monster that needs to be cut down to size.

The massive bureaucracy, attacked by some as evil, is absurdly overstaffed and wastes massive amounts of money.

What President Trump is doing in trying to shrink the size of government is popular – even if his billionaire budget-slasher, Elon Musk, is not – and many of the court battles are likely to be resolved in his favor.

But the equation is turned on its head when actual people feel the impact. And the media start highlighting sad cases of devastated folks. And Republican lawmakers start objecting to the cutbacks that hit home.

That’s why it’s so hard to cut the federal budget. It’s not like going into SpaceX and firing a bunch of software engineers. The political pressures can be intense.

Virtually every program in the federal budget is there because some group, at some time, convinced Congress it was a good idea. There are noble-sounding causes – cancer research, aid to veterans, subsidies for farmers.

In fact, farmers are threatened by the near-abolition of USAID – while most people hate foreign aid, food programs provide a crucial market for American farmers, many of whom are now stuck with spoiling surpluses or loans they can’t repay.

Now there’s plenty of game-playing that goes on with government programs. Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that agencies could cut one of every 10 employees without damaging their core functions. 

Anyone who’s looked at the endless cycle of conferences, conventions, training confabs, office renovations and the like knows how much fat there is in these budgets. When you throw in lucrative payments to well-connected contractors, that figure skyrockets.

But when agency officials come under fire, they immediately insist that any cutbacks will instantly hurt the poor and downtrodden, or working-class folks living paycheck to paycheck. It used to be called the Washington Monument defense, the notion that any attempt to reduce funding for the Interior Department would cause the memorial’s immediate shutdown.

NIH, for instance, does world-class research that benefits the country. But the battle between Musk’s DOGE and the institute centers on how much is spent on indirect costs.

Musk says his aim is ‘dropping the overhead charged on NIH grants from the outrageous 60 percent to a far more reasonable 15 percent.’

But an NBC story is headlined: ‘NIH Cuts Could Stall Medical Progress for Lifesaving Treatments, Experts Say.’

The piece quotes Theodore Iwashyna, a physician at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, as saying his ‘father had pancreatic cancer, and the care plan developed for him existed only because of research funded through organizations like the NIH.’

Iwashyna says the overhead is needed for ‘computers, whiteboards, microscopes, electricity, and janitors and staff who keep labs clean and organized.’

Alabama Sen. Katie Britt, whose state is getting $518 million in NIH grants, mainly to the University of Alabama at Birmingham, is raising objections. The conservative Republican told a reporter she wants the administration to take a ‘smart, targeted approach’ so as not to endanger ‘groundbreaking, lifesaving research.’

The examples are legion. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski has asked the administration not to restrict funding for diversity programs among American Indian tribes.

As the New York Times puts it, ‘some Republicans’ have sought ‘carve outs and special consideration for agriculture programs, scientific research and more, even as they cheered on Mr. Trump’s overall approach.’

Musk’s DOGE team seems to be using a meat-ax method. Why lay off hundreds of FAA technicians and engineers just weeks after the fatal plane crash at Reagan National Airport, when there’s already a major shortage of air traffic controllers?

FEMA, which is already stretched thin after the Los Angeles wildfires and the Kentucky flooding, is preparing to fire hundreds of probationary workers, reports the Washington Post. Such workers, who have been with the government for one or two years, basically have no rights. 

But there has been zero effort to assess them. Some were told their performance was the issue, but showed the Post their evaluations. ‘Above fully successful,’ said one, for a fired GSA worker. ‘An outstanding year, consistently exceeding expectations,’ said the review for a fired NIH staffer.

But viewed from a different angle, the hometown paper and other outlets buy into the notion that federal employees should have tenure for life. Everyone in Washington knows that before Trump it was virtually impossible to fire such employees, even for cause. 

By contrast, Southwest Airlines just announced a 15% cut of its corporate workforce. No one is rushing to interview those laid off, because this sort of downsizing is routine in the private sector. But the Beltway ethos is that federal workers are entitled to their jobs.

Now intellectual honesty requires the observation that even radical cuts to the federal payroll won’t have much impact on the $840 billion budget deficit or the $36 trillion federal debt. The bulk of the budget consists of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, defense spending and interest on the debt.

Can Elon Musk and DOGE at least make progress on rooting out waste, fraud and abuse? Maybe. But the level of pain being inflicted on ordinary Americans, including in red states, and the natural tendency of politicians to shield local residents from that pain, and the media’s relentless spotlight on those suffering, are going to be a giant obstacle.

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During Mettler-Toledo’s earnings call earlier this month, executives found themselves fielding a barrage of questions about one key topic: tariffs.

The Ohio-based maker of industrial scales and laboratory equipment had already opened the call by breaking down the expected impact from President Donald Trump’s still-evolving trade policy. But when the event transitioned to the question-and-answer portion, the inquiries from analysts seeking further detail about potential tariffs were constant.

“Uncertainty remains across many of our core markets and the global economy,” Finance Chief Shawn Vadala said on the Feb. 7 call. “Geopolitical tensions remain elevated, and include the potential for new tariffs that we have not factored into our guidance.”

Mettler-Toledo’s experience wasn’t unique. America’s largest companies are getting inundated with queries about how or if Trump’s salvo of promises on issues ranging from international trade to immigration and diversity will alter businesses.

A CNBC analysis shows multiple core themes tied to Trump’s policies are popping up on the earnings calls of S&P 500-listed companies at an increasing clip. Take “tariff.” Just weeks into the new year, the frequency of the word and its variations on earnings calls hit its highest level since 2020 — the last full year of Trump’s first term.

On top of that, new acronyms and phrases, like the “Gulf of America” or “DOGE,” have found their way into these meetings as the business community assesses what Trump’s return to power means for them.

Curiously, Trump himself wasn’t racking up mentions on these calls. Many uses of the word “trump” in transcripts reviewed by CNBC referred to the verb, rather than the president.

Still, a review of call transcripts shows how key words tied to Trump’s policies have quickly become commonplace. With the first earnings season of 2025 more than 75% complete, the comments offer an early glimpse into how these companies view the new administration.

One of the most talked about policies has been Trump’s tariff plans. The president briefly implemented — and then postponed — 25% taxes on imports to the U.S. from Mexico and Canada. He also separately slapped China with a 10% levy and imposed aluminum and steel tariffs. Then, on Thursday, he discussed a plan to impose retaliatory tariffs on other trading partners on a country-by-country basis.

Given the uncertainty, it’s no surprise tariffs are a hot topic. The topic has come up on more than 190 calls held by S&P 500 companies in 2025, putting it on track to see the highest share in half of a decade.

The frequency picked up late last year as Trump’s return to the White House became clear. About half of calls in 2024 that mentioned forms of the word took place in the fourth quarter, according to a CNBC analysis of data from FactSet, a market research service.

“Studying tariffs has been at the top of the list of things that we’ve been doing,” said Marathon Petroleum CEO Maryann Mannen on the energy company’s Feb. 4 earnings call.

Several companies said they were not factoring potential impacts from these levies into their guidance, citing uncertainty about what orders will actually go into place. Others just aren’t sure: At Martin Marietta Materials, CFO James Nickolas said the supplier’s profits could either benefit or take a hit from tariffs depending on what form ultimately takes effect.

While Generac didn’t calculate how these import taxes could affect future performance, CEO Aaron Jagdfeld said the generator maker is ready to mitigate the financial hit by reducing costs elsewhere and raising its prices. Camden Property Trust CEO Richard Campo said a company analysis shows proposed tariffs would push up costs for materials from Canada and Mexico like lumber and electrical boxes. These comments offer support to the idea that Trump’s tariffs may drive up consumer prices and fan inflation.

Zebra Technologies CFO Nathan Winters said price increases could help mitigate profit pressure. Auto parts maker BorgWarner, meanwhile, anticipates another year of declining demand in certain markets, which CFO Craig Aaron attributed in part to potential headwinds from these levies.

Cisco’s R. Scott Herren agreed with other executives on the lack of clarity, describing the tariff situation as “dynamic” on the networking equipment maker’s earnings call last week. Still, the CFO said the company has planned for some variation of Trump’s tariff proposals to take effect and is expecting costs to increase as a result.

“We’ve game planned out several scenarios and steps we could take depending on what actually goes into effect,” he said.

The topic of immigration, meanwhile, has already come up on the highest share of calls since 2017.

Trump has promised mass deportations of undocumented immigrants during his second term in office. Cracking down on immigration has been a core component of Trump’s political messaging since he ran in part to “build the wall” between the U.S. and Mexico for his first term. Critics assert that his plans would shock the labor market and could result in higher inflation.

Immigration mentions tend to tick up during the first year of a new administration, CNBC data shows. But 2025 has surpassed the first years of Joe Biden’s presidency and Barack Obama’s second term, underscoring Trump’s role in elevating the issue within U.S. businesses.

Some companies grouped immigration with tariffs as drivers of broader unpredictability within the economy. Nicholas Pinchuk, CEO of toolmaker Snap-On, described anecdotes of strong demand for repair services from its clients, but said they were still stressed by red flags in the economic backdrop.

“It’s clear the techs are in a good position. But that doesn’t make them immune to the macro uncertainty around them: ongoing wars, immigration disputes, lingering inflation,” Pinchuk said. “Although the election is in the rear mirror and the new team may be more focused on business expansion, there’s a rapid fire of new initiatives. … It’s hard not to be uncertain about what’s up.”

Firms in a variety of sectors took questions about what changes in the composition of America’s population would mean. AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile all fielded questions about whether a slowdown in immigration would hurt demand for certain phone plans. Michael Manelis, operations chief at apartment manager Equity Residential, said in response to an immigration-related inquiry that it hasn’t seen any upticks in lease breaks from tenants being deported.

In the Southern California market, real estate developer Prologis CEO Hamid Moghadam said deportations can decrease the pool of workers and, in turn, drive up employment costs in the region. That can exacerbate pricing pressures already expected as the Los Angeles community rebuilds in the wake of last month’s wildfires.

Other businesses insisted deportations wouldn’t create labor shortages for their operations because all of their workers are legally authorized. One such company, chicken producer Tyson Foods, said it hasn’t had factories visited by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or seen any declines in worker attendance.

“We’re confident that we’ll be able to continue to successfully run our business,” CEO Donnie King said on Feb. 3.

Topics that gained newfound relevance with Trump’s return to office have also already started emerging.

DOGE — the acronym for the new Department of Government Efficiency led by Tesla CEO Elon Musk — has been mentioned on more than 15 calls, as of Friday morning. This department has put Wall Street on alert as investors wonder if contracts between public companies and federal agencies could be on the chopping block with Musk’s team slashing spending.

Iron Mountain’s mine that stores government retirement records was ripped as an example of inefficiency by Musk during a visit to the Oval Office. But surprisingly, CEO Bill Meaney said the push for streamlining can actually benefit other parts of its business.

“As the government continues to drive to be more efficient, we see this as a continued opportunity for the company,” he said last week.

Executives at Palantir, the defensive technology company that was a top performer within the S&P 500 last year, are similarly hopeful. Technology Chief Shyam Sankar described Palantir’s work with the government as “operational” and “valuable,” and is hopeful that DOGE engineers will be “able to see that for a change.”

“I think DOGE is going to bring meritocracy and transparency to government, and that’s exactly what our commercial business is,” Sankar said during the company’s Feb. 3 call. “The commercial market is meritocratic and transparent, and you see the results that we have in that sort of environment. And that’s the basis of our optimism around this.”

He noted some concerns among other government software providers, and called those agreements “sacred cows of the deep state” during the call.

Elsewhere, the so-called Gulf of America has been a point of divergence after Trump’s executive order renaming what has long been known as the Gulf of Mexico. Chevron used the moniker Gulf of America repeatedly in its earnings release and on its call with analysts late last month. But Exxon Mobil, which held its earnings call the same day, opted instead to refer to the body of water as the Gulf of Mexico.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

Pope Francis has a “polymicrobial infection” of his respiratory tract that will require his hospital treatment to be changed, the Vatican said Monday, with tests indicating a “complex clinical picture” for one of the oldest popes in the church’s history.

The test results implied a further change in treatment requiring “adequate hospitalization” for the 88-year-old pontiff – who has long been plagued by a string of lung-related medical struggles.

“The results of the tests carried out in recent days and today have demonstrated a polymicrobial infection of the respiratory tract that has led to a further change in therapy,” the Vatican said in a statement.

“All the tests carried out to date are indicative of a complex clinical picture that will require adequate hospitalization.”

Earlier Monday, Francis slept well, read some newspapers and ate breakfast, according to Vatican spokesperson, Matteo Bruni.

The pope was checked into a hospital in Rome last week for “diagnostic tests” relating to a respiratory tract infection, the Vatican added. They later confirmed he was in Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in the Italian capital – and had canceled his meetings for the next three days, including his general audience scheduled Wednesday.

He did not lead the weekly Angelus prayer on Sunday – only the second time that this has happened in his almost 12-year-long papacy.

Doctors had prescribed “complete rest” for the pope, who had engaged in an intense round of meetings and public events until his hospitalization.

When he was younger, the Argentinian leader endured severe pneumonia and had part of one lung removed. More recently, he suffered two falls in recent months and has been seen using a wheelchair to help alleviate his restricted mobility.

Francis also has diverticulitis, a common condition that can cause the inflammation or infection of the colon. In 2021, he had surgery to remove part of his colon.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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A man hailed as the world’s first imam to say he was gay was shot dead in South Africa on Saturday, local police said, in what rights groups fear could be a hate crime.

Eastern Cape provincial police said in a statement it was investigating the death of Muhsin Hendricks, 58, in Bethelsdorp stating that the motive behind the killing was unclear.

The statement said that at around 10 a.m. Saturday, “Hendricks and a driver was inside a gold-colored VW TRoc in Haley Place, Extension 24, Bethelsdorp when a silver-colored Hilux double cab stopped in front and blocked them from driving off.”

It added that: “Two unknown suspects with covered faces got out of the vehicle and started firing multiple shots at the vehicle. Thereafter they fled the scene, and the driver noticed that Hendricks who was seated at the back of the vehicle was shot and killed.”

Shootings are common in South Africa where murder rates – already among the highest in the world – are at a 20-year high.

Fears of hate crime

Hendricks was the “first imam in the world to come out as gay” in 1996, according to a statement from the advocacy group the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World) on Saturday.

“The ILGA World family is in deep shock at the news of the murder of Muhsin Hendricks, and calls on authorities to thoroughly investigate what we fear may be a hate crime,” Julia Ehrt, executive director at ILGA World, said in the statement.

South Africa’s Department of Justice and Constitutional Development said it was “saddened” by Hendrick’s murder and pledged to “track and monitor that justice is dispensed” if his death is indeed confirmed as a hate crime.

Hendricks founded the Al-Ghurbaah Foundation in Cape Town, where he served as executive director. The human rights organization provides support to “Queer Muslims helping them to reconcile Islam with their Sexual orientation and Gender Identity,” according to the Al-Ghurbaah Foundation’s website.

The Muslim Judicial Council of South Africa (MJC) “unequivocally” condemned the “shocking killing” in a statement Sunday.

“It has been alleged that the killing may have been motivated by hatred towards Muhsin Hendricks due to his views on same-sex relationships. While the MJC has consistently maintained that Muhsin’s position is incompatible with Islamic teachings, we unequivocally condemn his murder and any acts of violence targeting members of the LGBTQ community or any other community,” the MJC said.

The imam was the subject of the 2022 documentary “The Radical” which followed Hendricks establishing a mosque for LGBTQ+ Muslims in Cape Town, South Africa, amid death threats. “The need to be authentic was greater than the fear to die,” Hendricks says in the film.

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Some 400 calls for help went unanswered when the helpline at Ukraine’s Veteran Hub went silent for a week after key funding from the United States was abruptly cut last month.

The Ukrainian NGO gets all sorts of calls. Some come from military families who have just found out their loved one was killed on the frontline. Some are from injured veterans who are struggling to cope with their return to civilian life or need help navigating the bureaucracy.

And some calls can save lives.

Kostyna and her colleagues had no choice but to shut the helpline down last month after receiving a stop-work order from the United States Department of State – a direct consequence of President Donald Trump’s decision to suspend nearly all US foreign aid.

The freeze is already causing hardship across Ukraine, with lifesaving projects suddenly put on hold.

Ukraine has been by far the biggest recipient of USAID funds in the past three years, ever since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.

According to the agency’s now defunct website, USAID has provided Ukraine with a total of $37.6 billion in humanitarian aid, development assistance and direct budget support since the full-scale war began.

Trump and his allies have said the agency, created by the US legislature as an independent body, is overtly partisan. Opposition lawmakers and former USAID administrators from both political parties have rejected that assertion and called for America’s foreign assistance programs to be protected.

After the European Union, the US is Ukraine’s biggest donor of humanitarian aid, providing more than a quarter of all the country receives. It is by far the biggest donor of military aid.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his government was trying to find alternative sources of funding from within Ukraine and abroad. “These are areas that the government cannot provide for because the government doesn’t have enough money because the government is funding the army,” Kostyna said.

But the impact of the suspension goes way beyond the funding.

Kostyna said that many of the hub’s employees are either the main or sole breadwinners in their families, which means they cannot afford to be on unpaid leave. Most are highly qualified, with years of experience.

“So not only would we lose that person but, if the funding comes back, we’d have to rebuild, and we would lose six months training the next person. This is why continuity is so important,” she said.

‘Zero warning’

Vykhid has been a USAID partner since 2004. It serves roughly 5,000 clients at any given time, including drug users, newly diagnosed people and long-term patients.

The foundation relies on USAID for more than half of its funding, although there were times in the past when it was its only source. “We realized (then) that it is impossible to have only one donor for the organization to exist and we tried to have diversified sources of funding – thank God that we still have that,” Goriacheva said.

The foundation has had to shut down a key project focused on detection of new HIV cases since the freeze was announced, Goriacheva said. Ukraine has the highest prevalence of HIV in Europe and one of the highest outside Africa. The country experienced a rapidly spreading epidemic in the 1990s and, while rates have since dropped, early detection remains crucial.

“There are very few (people) doing this type of work. Doctors who worked with us for six years were receiving remuneration from us for any new patient they identified,” she said. “Now that the project has closed, some of them have stopped doing this activity completely.”

The foundation also provides other assistance to people living with HIV. It received a request last week to cover the cost of an MRI scan for a severely ill HIV patient in an intensive care unit.

The hospital turned to Vykhid, but because of the stop-work order Goriacheva had to turn the request down. Thankfully, she said, the hospital was able to find funding elsewhere.

The sudden nature of the funding freeze has made the situation particularly difficult. The order came without warning, effectively pulling the plug on hundreds of projects across Ukraine.

Kostyna said that anyone working in the non-profit sector knows that funding sources can dry up. “But it never crossed our mind that it could stop in a day. And it’s not about the money, it’s about the fact that we had zero warning, and we had no way to cover (the cuts) because we are not allowed to put money aside,” she said.

Goriacheva said that earlier this week, she was told by USAID subcontractors that some of the projects – those deemed essential – were being restored.

“Not in full. But those services that are vital are being restored,” she said, adding that she is now reaching out to her former project coordinators to figure out how to proceed.

‘On the verge of a disaster’

The rural community of Shevchenkove in the Mykolaiv region of southern Ukraine has been hit hard by the war. It was partially occupied for nine months after the full-scale invasion. The head of the local administration, Oleh Pylypenko, was detained by Russian forces.

Ukrainian forces liberated the area in November 2022, but the damage suffered during the occupation was extensive.

“Everything that was destroyed had to be rebuilt, and everything that was occupied had to be rebuilt,” said Pylypenko, who was released in a prisoner swap.

Health was a major issue for the community following the lengthy occupation, he said. Doctors and healthcare professionals funded by foreign aid money, including USAID, set up diagnostic clinics and have been distributing free medicines. All of the services that relied solely on USAID funding have now been suspended.

Pylypenko said he doubts that other international donors can match the funds previously provided by USAID. “I think (the situation) is on the verge of a disaster,” he said, adding that even if the programs are restarted after the initial 90-day freeze announced by Trump, it will take much longer to get them back up and running.

This delay will have a significant impact on the community, he said. One local project funded by USAID was focused on setting up emergency educational spaces. These are fully equipped classrooms in safe locations with access to shelters, where children whose schools were destroyed can attend in-person classes.

One was opened recently in the region, and another was supposed to open in March. Pylypenko said the children who were due to attend had seen their original schools destroyed during the occupation, only for another at which they were attending classes to be hit by a Russian drone last summer.

Pylypenko now hopes they can have the new space ready for September, but if Trump’s freeze is renewed, alternative funding will need to be found, “God willing.”

But what worries Pylypenko the most is the freeze impacting Ukraine’s access to the training programs provided by USAID. These tend to focus on local government, anti-corruption, efficiency and democracy-building, and they are key for Ukraine’s future development, as well as its hopes of eventually joining the European Union.

“These were good training programs, plus there was exchange of experiences with the best communities, and the level (of performance) rose significantly,” he said, likening the USAID programs to the proverb about teaching people to fish, rather than just sending them fish to eat.

Working for free

Kostyna first launched the Veteran Hub in 2016, after a firsthand experience with trauma. Her friend, 19-year-old Ustym Holodnyuk, was killed by a sniper at Kyiv’s Maidan, or Independence Square, during the 2014 protests. She struggled for a long time without support.

“It didn’t even (cross) my mind to reach out for help, to reach out to a psychologist. And now, fast forward 10 years, and the impact that we, among others, have managed to achieve is that there is a large change in how people perceive this, we see a rising number of veterans (who say) they trust psychologists,” she said.

Kostyna said that the consistency in the US foreign aid program meant that she and her colleagues were able to build something that was unheard of in Ukraine just a decade ago: a comprehensive veterans’ affairs (support?) service.

“We now have taxi drivers bringing people in when they’re in distress. So they would sit in a taxi, share their story, and the taxi driver would (make a detour) and bring them to us… they do this regularly,” she said.

Most of those working at the Veteran Hub are relatives of veterans, active service members, or people who have experienced trauma, she said. Like many in Ukraine, they are struggling to make ends meet, living paycheck to paycheck.

Yet when the stop-work order came in, staff at one of their two centers refused to leave.

“In the week of the freeze, when we didn’t have funding, our Vinnytsia hub remained open, even though we couldn’t pay our employees. They didn’t receive (a) salary, but they all showed up to work on Monday, wearing uniforms, and they continued working,” she said.

There was some good news that week. After three days of intense fundraising efforts, the Veteran Hub managed to secure enough money to keep the helpline open for three months and get 14 people back to work. A few days later it received assurances from local businesses and the Vinnytsia city council that they will provide funding until the Veteran Hub finds a long-term solution.

The fact that she didn’t have to shutter the hub was a lifesaver, Kostyna said.

“There are so many people who just turn up,” she said. “There was a veteran who lost his documents, and he was referred to us because he was literally homeless, and he was looking for shelter and he needed medicine, and we were able to assist him.”

If the hub’s doors were to close, people like him would find themselves with nowhere else to go.

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Mexico will take Google to court if maps shown to US-based users continue to label the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America across the entire body of water, President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday, arguing that US President Donald Trump’s order to rename it only applies to the part of the continental shelf under US control.

“What Google is doing here is changing the name of the continental shelf of Mexico and Cuba, which has nothing to do with Trump’s decree, which applied only to the US continental shelf,” Sheinbaum told reporters. “We do not agree with this, and the Foreign Minister has sent a new letter addressing the issue.”

Sheinbaum said the renaming is “incorrect,” adding that Trump’s decree “only changed the name within his own continental shelf, which extends 22 nautical miles from the US coast—not the entire Gulf.”

Last week, Google renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America for US-based users of Google Maps, citing “a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.” People in Mexico continue to see the body of water listed as the Gulf of Mexico. All other countries see both names.

During the press conference, Sheinbaum read out a response from Google to a letter sent by Mexico to the company in January, contesting the tech giant’s decision to rename the area.

“As we first announced two weeks ago, and consistent with our product policies, we’ve begun rolling out changes in Google Maps. We would like to confirm that people using Maps in Mexico will continue to see ‘Gulf of Mexico,’” the letter from Google reiterated.

“People in the US will see ‘Gulf of America’. Everyone else will see both names,” the letter added.

Sheinbaum said Mexico is now sending a new letter back to Google, which reads “any reference to the ‘Gulf of America’ initiative on your Google Maps platform must be strictly limited to the marine area under U.S. jurisdiction.”

“Any extension beyond that zone exceeds the authority of any national government or private entity. Should that be the case, the Government of Mexico will take the appropriate legal actions as deemed necessary,” it added.

Sheinbaum noted that Mexico would wait for Google’s response before moving forward with legal action.

Sheinbaum first threatened to take Google to court last week, saying a civil suit could be on the table if the tech giant does not correct what she called an “inaccurate designation.”

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Famed Mexican singer-songwriter Paquita la del Barrio has died at the age of 77, her team announced Monday in a statement on Instagram.

“Rest in peace, your music and legacy will always live in our hearts,” the statement said, asking for space so that her family can “live their grief in privacy.”

The artist, whose real name was Francisca Viveros Barradas, was born in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz in 1947. Her best-known songs were known for lyrics that called out men in broken romantic relationships.

This is a developing story. More to come

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