Overview
- New reporting identifies Peter Marocco and 28-year-old Jeremy Lewin as key decision-makers who rapidly froze or cut programs and celebrated being on track to eliminate roughly 90% of USAID’s work with a sheet cake.
- Field accounts describe immediate disruptions, including a World Relief clinic in South Sudan closing during a major cholera outbreak after U.S. funding halted.
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s claim that no one died is disputed by aid groups that reported child deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria and by evidence of prolonged funding gaps.
- Reuters details continuing effects even after partial restorations, citing Kenya clinics still short of therapeutic food months after a March funding restart.
- The cuts canceled more than 5,000 programs and left fewer than 1,000 standing, with outside analyses warning of large projected excess deaths if services are not fully restored.