Politics
U.S. pledges $2B in UN humanitarian aid, pushes agencies to ‘adapt’ to cuts – National TenX News
The United States on Monday announced a $2 billion pledge for U.N. humanitarian aid as President Donald Trump’s administration slashes U.S. foreign assistance and warns United Nations agencies they must “adapt, shrink or die” in a time of new financial realities.
The money is a small fraction of what the U.S. has contributed in the past but reflects what the administration believes is still a generous amount that will maintain America’s status as the world’s largest humanitarian donor.
“This new model will better share the burden of U.N. humanitarian work with other developed countries and will require the U.N. to cut bloat, remove duplication, and commit to powerful new impact, accountability and oversight mechanisms,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on social media.
The pledge creates an umbrella fund from which money will be doled out to agencies and priorities, a key part of U.S. demands for drastic changes across the U.N. that have alarmed many humanitarian workers and led to severe reductions in programs and services.
The $2 billion is only a sliver of traditional U.S. humanitarian funding for U.N.-coordinated programs, which has run as high as $17 billion annually in recent years, according to U.N. data. U.S. officials say only $8 billion to $10 billion of that has been in voluntary contributions. The United States also pays billions in annual dues related to its U.N. membership.
“The piggy bank is not open to organizations that just want to return to the old system,” Jeremy Lewin, the State Department official in charge of foreign assistance, said at a press conference Monday in Geneva. “President Trump has made clear that the system is dead.”
The State Department said “individual U.N. agencies will need to adapt, shrink, or die.” Critics say the Western aid cutbacks have been shortsighted, driven millions toward hunger, displacement or disease, and harmed U.S. soft power around the world.
The move caps a crisis year for many U.N. organizations, including its refugee, migration and food aid agencies. The Trump administration has already cut billions in U.S. foreign aid, prompting the agencies to slash spending, aid projects and thousands of jobs. Other traditional Western donors have reduced outlays, too.
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The U.S. pledge for aid programs of the United Nations — the world’s top provider of humanitarian assistance and biggest recipient of U.S. humanitarian aid money — takes shape in a preliminary deal with the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, run by Tom Fletcher, a former British diplomat and government official.
Fletcher, who has spent the past year lobbying U.S. officials not to abandon U.N. funding altogether, appeared optimistic at the deal’s signing in Geneva.
“It’s a very, very significant landmark contribution. And a month ago, I would have anticipated the number would have been zero,” he told reporters. “And so I think, before worrying about what we haven’t got, I’d like to look at the millions of people whose lives will be saved, whose lives will be better because of this contribution, and start there.”
Even as the U.S. pulls back its aid contributions, needs have ballooned worldwide: Famine has been recorded this year in parts of conflict-ridden Sudan and Gaza, and floods, drought and natural disasters that many scientists attribute to climate change have taken many lives or driven thousands from their homes.
The cuts will have major implications for U.N. affiliates like the International Organization for Migration, the World Food Program and refugee agency UNHCR. They have already received billions less from the U.S. this year than under annual allocations from the Biden administration — or even during Trump’s first term.
Now, the idea is that Fletcher’s office — which has aimed to improve efficiency — will become a funnel for U.S. and other aid money that can be redirected to those agencies, rather than scattered U.S. contributions to a variety of individual appeals for aid.
Asked by reporters if the U.S. language of “adapt or die” worried him, Fletcher said, “If the choices are adapt or die, I choose adapt.”
U.S. seeks aid consolidation
U.S. officials say the $2 billion is just a first outlay to help fund OCHA’s annual appeal for money. Fletcher, noting the upended aid landscape, already slashed the request this year. Other traditional U.N. donors like Britain, France, Germany and Japan have reduced aid allocations and sought reforms this year.
“This humanitarian reset at the United Nations should deliver more aid with fewer tax dollars — providing more focused, results-driven assistance aligned with U.S foreign policy,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said.
At its core, the changes will help establish pools of funding that can be directed either to specific crises or countries in need. A total of 17 countries will be initially targeted, including Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Syria and Ukraine.
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres also welcomed the announcement, saying that “every dollar counts.”
Two of the world’s most desperate countries, Afghanistan and Yemen, are not included, with U.S. officials citing aid diversion to the Taliban and Houthi rebels as concerns over restarting contributions.
Also not mentioned on the list are the Palestinian territories, which officials say will be covered by money stemming from Trump’s as-yet-incomplete Gaza peace plan.
The U.N. project, months in the making, stems from Trump’s longtime view that the world body has great promise but has failed to live up to it and has — in his eyes — drifted too far from its original mandate to save lives while undermining American interests, promoting radical ideologies and encouraging wasteful, unaccountable spending.
“No one wants to be an aid recipient. No one wants to be living in a UNHCR camp because they’ve been displaced by conflict,” Lewin said. “So the best thing that we can do to decrease costs, and President Trump recognizes this and that’s why he’s the president of peace, is by ending armed conflict and allowing communities to get back to peace and prosperity.”
Lee reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Farnoush Amiri contributed from New York.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said she presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday even as he has questioned her credibility to take over her country after the U.S. ousted then-President Nicolás Maduro.
The Nobel Institute has said Machado could not give her prize to Trump, an honour that he has coveted. Even if the gesture proves to be purely symbolic, it was extraordinary given that Trump has effectively sidelined Machado, who has long been the face of resistance in Venezuela. He has signalled his willingness to work with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who had been Maduro’s second in command.
“I presented the president of the United States the medal, the Nobel Peace Prize,” Machado told reporters after leaving the White House and heading to Capitol Hill. She said she had done so “as a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom.”
Trump confirmed later on social media that Machado had left the medal for him to keep, and he said it was an honour to meet her.
“She is a wonderful woman who has been through so much. María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done,” Trump said in his post. “Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you María!”
The White House later posted a photo of Machado standing next to Trump in the Oval Office as he holds the medal in a large frame. A text in the frame reads, “Presented as a personal symbol of gratitude on behalf of the Venezuelan people in recognition of President Trump’s principled and decisive action to secure a free Venezuela.”
Trump has raised doubts about his stated commitment to backing democratic rule in Venezuela, giving no timetable on when elections might be held. Machado indicated that he had provided few specifics on that front during their discussion.
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She did not provide more information on what was said.
‘We can count on President Trump’
After the closed-door meeting, Machado greeted dozens of cheering supporters waiting for her near the White House gates, stopping to hug many.
“We can count on President Trump,” she told them without elaborating, prompting some to briefly chant, “Thank you, Trump.”
Before her visit to Washington, Machado had not been seen in public since she travelled last month to Norway, where her daughter received the peace prize on her behalf. She had spent 11 months in hiding in Venezuela before she appeared in Norway after the ceremony.
The jubilant scene after her meeting with Trump stood in contrast to political realities in Venezuela. Rodríguez remains in charge of day-to-day government operations, along with others in Maduro’s inner circle. In her first state of the union speech Thursday, the interim president promoted the resumption of diplomatic ties between the historic adversaries and advocated for opening the state-run oil industry to more foreign investment after Trump pledged to seize control of Venezuelan crude sales.
Trump has said it would be difficult for Machado to lead because she “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.” Her party is widely believed to have won 2024 elections rejected by Maduro.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called Machado “a remarkable and brave voice” but also said the meeting didn’t mean Trump’s opinion of her changed, calling it “a realistic assessment.”
Leavitt told reporters that Trump supported new Venezuelan elections “when the time is right” but did not say when he thought that might be.
A ‘frank and positive discussion’ about Venezuela
Leavitt said Machado had sought the face-to-face meeting without setting expectations for what would occur. She spent about two and a half hours at the White House.
“I don’t think he needs to hear anything from Ms. Machado,” the press secretary said while the meeting was still going on, other than to have a ”frank and positive discussion about what’s taking place in Venezuela.”
After leaving the White House, Machado went on to a closed-door meeting with a bipartisan group of senators.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said Machado told them that “if there’s not some progress, real progress towards a transition in power, and/or elections in the next several months, we should all be worried.”
“She reminded us that Delcy Rodríguez is, in many ways, worse than Maduro,” he added.
Asked if Machado had heard any commitment from the White House on holding elections in Venezuela, Murphy said, “No, I don’t think she got any commitment from them.”
Sen. Bernie Moreno, an Ohio Republican, was exultant following the meeting, saying Machado “delivered a message that loud and clear: What President Trump did was the most important, significant event in Latin America. That getting rid of Maduro was absolutely essential.”
Machado’s Washington stop coincided with U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea seizing another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says had ties to Venezuela. It is part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil after U.S. forces captured Maduro and his wife less than two weeks ago at a heavily guarded compound in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and brought them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges.
Leavitt said Venezuela’s interim authorities have been fully cooperating with the Trump administration and noted that Rodríguez’s government said it planned to release more prisoners detained under Maduro. Among those released were five Americans this week.
Trump said Wednesday that he had a “great conversation” with Rodríguez, their first since Maduro was ousted.
Machado doesn’t get the nod from Trump
Just hours after Maduro’s capture, Trump said of Machado that “it would be very tough for her to be the leader.” Machado had steered a careful course to avoid offending Trump, notably after winning the peace prize, and had sought to cultivate relationships with him and key administration voices like Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The industrial engineer and daughter of a steel magnate, Machado began challenging the ruling party in 2004, when the nongovernmental organization she co-founded, Súmate, promoted a referendum to recall then-President Hugo Chávez. The initiative failed, and Machado and other Súmate executives were charged with conspiracy.
A year later, she drew the anger of Chávez and his allies again for travelling to Washington to meet President George W. Bush, whom Chávez considered an adversary.
Almost two decades later, she marshalled millions of Venezuelans to reject Chávez’s successor, Maduro, for another term in the 2024 election. But ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared him the winner despite ample credible evidence to the contrary. Ensuing anti-government protests ended in a brutal crackdown.
Politics
IMF chief backs Jerome Powell, U.S. Fed independence amid Trump pressure – National TenX News
International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva on Thursday underscored the importance of keeping central banks independent and threw her support behind beleaguered Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who is facing a Trump administration investigation for renovation cost overruns.
Georgieva told Reuters in an interview that there was ample evidence that central bank independence worked in the interest of businesses and households, and that evidence-based, data-based decision-making is good for the economy.
The IMF managing director said she had worked with Powell and respected his professionalism.
“I have worked with Jay Powell. He is a very good professional, very decent man, and I think that his standing among his colleagues tells the story,” she said, when asked about a letter of support signed by her predecessor, Christine Lagarde, now head of the European Central Bank, and other large central banks.
Powell on Sunday disclosed that the Trump administration had opened an investigation into him over cost overruns for a $2.5 billion project to renovate two historical buildings at the Fed’s Washington headquarters complex.
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Powell denies wrongdoing and has called the unprecedented actions a pretext to put pressure on him for not bowing to U.S. President Donald Trump’s long-running demands for sharply lower interest rates.
The probe has sparked widespread criticism from some key members of Trump’s Republican Party in the U.S. Senate, which must confirm his nominee to succeed Powell, along with foreign economic officials, investors and former U.S. government officials from both political parties.
Trump has repeatedly derided Powell’s leadership of the Fed and attacked him, often personally, over what he sees as the Fed chair’s slow moves to cut interest rates. On Wednesday, he dismissed concerns that eroding central bank independence would undermine the value of the U.S. dollar and spark inflation, telling Reuters, “I don’t care.”
Georgieva said the IMF looked carefully at issues such as monetary and financial stability, as well as the strength of a country’s institutions. It was specifically interested in the Fed, given the role of the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency.
“It would be very good to see that there is a recognition … that the Fed is precious for the Americans. It is very important for the rest of the world,” she said.
Trump has also attempted to fire another Fed official, Governor Lisa Cook, who has challenged her termination in a legal case that will be argued before the Supreme Court next week.
B.C. Premier David Eby spoke to reporters on Thursday morning from Mumbai, India, during his six-day trade mission.
He said that mining and energy companies in India are showing an interest in B.C.
“They are looking strongly to LNG as one of their ways of reducing carbon intensity, as well as reducing smog in the country,” Eby said.
“And so B.C. LNG has been an item of considerable interest, especially the projects that are reaching final investment decision over the next year — LNG Canada Phase 2, KSI Lisims LNG — as well as the projects that are under construction like Woodfibre LNG.”
Eby was also asked about the rise in extortion cases in B.C.
He said the province’s extortion task force will provide an update next week.
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“We have assembled a remarkable and historic task force, RCMP, CBSA,” Eby said.
“There are more police in Surrey right now than there have ever been. The RCMP has surged resources into the community.”
Eby said he has not been happy with the fact that there has been no update from the task force and he has asked them to provide one.
“There have been some important developments, people deported, an arrest here in India, cooperation between the Indian government and the Canadian government on this at the law enforcement level,” he added.
“That needs to continue, but, bluntly, we need better results, we need to see more arrests and whatever we can do to support the police to get the job done, we will do so.”
As of Jan. 12, Surrey police said there have been 16 reported extortion incidents in the city since the beginning of the year.
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Trump gifted Nobel Peace Prize by Venezuela’s María Corina Machado – National TenX News
IMF chief backs Jerome Powell, U.S. Fed independence amid Trump pressure – National TenX News
B.C. Premier David Eby says province’s LNG, mining of interest to India TenX News
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