16 h. ago The Guardian view on Zambia’s Trumpian predicament: US aid cuts are dwarfed by a far bigger heist | Editorial

As the US decries corruption, a paper suggests the real scandal is multinationals legally extracting billions from Africa’s resource-rich nationDonald Trump’s decision to cut $50m a year in aid to Zambia – one of the world’s poorest nations – is dreadful, and the reason given, corruption, rings hollow. There is evidence of large-scale looting, but the real scandal is that the theft appears legal, systemic and driven by foreign interests. In a paper presented to the Association for Heterodox Economics conference in London later this month, Andrew Fischer of Erasmus University Rotterdam argues that Zambia’s economy is not being plundered by domestic actors but rather by transnational corporate practices enabled by opaque accounting. His findings point to a staggering extraction of wealth that dwarfs the value of the aid intended to help.Zambia is blessed – or perhaps cursed – with mineral wealth. It is Africa’s second-largest copper producer. The metal, key to the green...

Politics

22 h. ago Aid cuts push global funding down by a third in 2025, UN data shows

Agency that coordinates humanitarian responses says that for 44 humanitarian crises it has prioritised this year, only around 11 per cent of the required funding as been confirmed, writes Nick Ferris

Politics

65 h. ago Corporations are ditching rainbow flags and cutting funding for Pride. LGBT+ people say they won’t forget it

After years of showy tributes and accusations of ‘rainbow-washing’, US companies are shrinking back for fear of Donald Trump, Io Dodds reports

Politics

3 d. ago The Independent Pride List 2025: the LGBT+ people making change happen

The Independent’s Pride List is back again, celebrating the LGBT+ community’s biggest pioneers over the past 12 months

Politics

1 week ago How sexual violence survivors in South Africa are now collateral damage of Trump’s aid cuts

Rape crisis services are suffering the knock-on effect of US funded HIV services being cut, writes Rachel Schraer

Events

1 week ago Donald Trump must reverse his aid cuts and lift the death sentence on HIV patients

Editorial: As a new Independent documentary shows, by shutting off US foreign aid and abruptly stopping the supply of HIV drugs to developing countries, the US president has punished some of the poorest people on the planet

Politics

1 week ago The Aids crisis was set to end by 2030 – now Trump’s cuts will mean 4 million more deaths

HIV infections and deaths from Aids are set to skyrocket in the next five years if US-funded programmes are not reinstated, write Rachel Schraer, Alicja Hagopian, Bel Trew and Rebecca Thomas

Events

1 week ago ‘I can’t protect my unborn baby from HIV’: The stark reality of Trump’s aid cuts

From the pregnant woman who fears HIV will now be transmitted to her child, to the father of four lying in agony on a mattress with no access to drugs. In Uganda and Zimbabwe, chief international correspondent Bel Trew finds the US president’s brutal severing of aid – and abrupt halt in medication – is already tearing lives apart

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2 w. ago Revealed: The true cost of climate crisis for world’s poorest countries

Exclusive: Small-island states and conflict-vulnerable countries in Africa are suffering intensely as floods, droughts and hurricanes wreak havoc on communities and livelihoods

Events

2 w. ago South Africa says its budget can't cover for the deep US cuts in foreign aid

South Africa's finance minister says the country doesn’t have the funds to cover the over $430 million shortfall caused by the Trump administration’s cuts in foreign aid

Politics

2 w. ago Voices: This is the beginning of the end of international aid. What will the new world look like?

Donald Trump's attack on aid has been a long time coming, argue Heba Aly and Nilima Gulrajani. Now is the time to create a response fit for the 21st century

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3 w. ago AP PHOTOS: Children die as USAID aid cuts snap a lifeline for the world's most malnourished

For years, the U.S. Agency for International Development had been the backbone of the humanitarian response in northeastern Nigeria, helping non-government organizations provide food, shelter and healthcare to millions of people. But this year, the Trump administration cut more than 90% of USAID’s foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in overall assistance around the world.

Events

3 w. ago South Africa says Trump's aid cuts stripped more than 8,000 health workers from its HIV program

The Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID has put more than 8,000 health workers in South Africa’s national HIV program out of work

Politics

4 w. ago UK cuts to international aid will have huge impact, minister admits

Development minister claims there is an ‘absolute crisis’ in public support for international aid

Politics

4 w. ago How Trump’s aid cuts are inflicting double the pain on LGBT+ people

Uganda has some of the harshest anti-gay laws in the world – with same-sex couples facing up to life imprisonment. Rachel Schraer speaks to Ugandans who have run out of HIV medication and finds out how already vulnerable communities are coping

Politics

4 w. ago Labour’s delay on conversion practices ban is ‘dangerous’, campaigners say

Exclusive: Failure to act sends message ‘our safety is optional’, says coalition of LGBTQ+, faith and mental health organisationsThe Labour government’s continued delay in delivering its promised UK-wide ban on conversion practices is disappointing, dangerous and sends the message that the safety of LGBTQ+ people is optional, according to campaigners.In a strongly worded statement, Saba Ali of the Ban Conversion Therapy Coalition said its message to the government was clear: “Stop the delay and deliver the promise. It’s been seven years since a ban was first pledged, yet LGBT+ people are still being subjected to degrading, abusive practices while the government dithers. Continue reading...

Politics