34 h. ago Work requirements could transform Medicaid and food aid under US budget bill

Work requirements for Medicaid recipients, hospitals checking citizenship status, food assistance cuts and other measures in the budget passed by the U.S. House would rearrange the U.S. social safety net

Economics

38 h. ago More than 60 charities demand UK reverse ‘shameful’ aid cuts that will expose women and girls to abuse

Exclusive: Cuts to spending will leave at least a million women and children at increased risk of violence, charities say

Events

56 h. ago Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill edges closer to passing. Here’s what it says, and what it means for you

The bill looks to slash taxes and increase spending on oil drilling, the military, and immigration, while also making cuts to Medicaid and food assistance programs

Politics

59 h. 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

59 h. ago Cutting aid for girls’ education isn’t just wrong – it’s economically illiterate | Larry Elliott

This slash-and-burn approach is indefensible and would have been anathema to previous Labour governmentsAsk any one of the 187 female Labour MPs whether they would have made it to the House of Commons without an education and you would probably get short shrift. Most would wax lyrical about their school days and the teachers who taught and inspired them.Yet the government of which those women make up almost half the total number of MPs is now targeting spending on “education and gender” for cuts in the overseas aid budget. It is beyond depressing.Larry Elliott is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Economics

65 h. ago The US credit rating has been downgraded. But there’s an easy fix for our debt | Robert Reich

Instead of cutting taxes on the richest Americans – who hold much of the country’s debt – simply raise themOn Friday, the credit rating of the United States was downgraded. Moody’s, the ratings firm, announced that the government’s rising debt levels would grow further if the Trump Republican package of new tax cuts were enacted. This makes lending to the US riskier.Moody’s is the third of the three major credit-rating agencies to downgrade the credit rating of the United States.They’ll pay even more interest on the growing debt – to the super-rich.They’ll pay higher interest rates on all other long-term debt. (As higher rates on treasury bonds waft through the economy, they raise borrowing costs on everything from mortgages to auto loans.)The debt crisis will give Republicans even more excuse to do what they’re always wanting to do: slash safety nets. So many Americans could lose benefits they rely on, such as Medicaid and food stamps.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, i...

Politics

3 d. ago Don’t be fooled. Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ is typically ugly and typically misnamed | Arwa Mahdawi

Republicans love to make the most harmful laws sound sensible or even noble. This pretty-sounding package of tax breaks and spending cuts is just the latest exampleWhat’s big, beautiful and kept a lot of Republicans up late on Sunday night? There might be various responses to that question, but the answer I’m looking for is the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Coming in at 1,116 pages, the bill isn’t quite War and Peace but it’s definitely big. Whether the mega-package of tax breaks and spending cuts is beautiful, however, is up for debate.And there has certainly been a lot of debate. The bill has been in limbo for a while because a few Republicans who consider themselves “fiscally conservative” are happy with the package’s extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and increased spending for the military and immigration enforcement, but don’t think enough social and climate-related programmes have been slashed to pay for it all. In particular, they want deeper cuts to food stamps and Medicaid, ...

Politics

4 d. ago Gemma Chan says UK aid cuts cannot be borne by ‘most vulnerable children’

The actress and Unicef ambassador signed a letter calling on the Government to ensure that 25% of aid budget is spent on work for children.

Politics

1 week ago Labour to defend aid cuts, claiming UK’s days as ‘a global charity’ are over

Development minister will tell MPs that Britain will share ‘incredible expertise’ instead of fundingThe days of viewing the UK as “a global charity” are over, the new development minister, Jenny Chapman, will tell MPs, in remarks that are likely to prove a controversial defence of the large-scale aid cuts she is about to oversee.Lady Chapman replaced Anneliese Dodds in February after Dodds refused to back Keir Starmer’s decision to cut the UK aid budget from 0.5% of gross national income (GNI) to 0.3% in 2027. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago How British expertise is maximising aid impact amid budget cuts

THE ARTICLES ON THESE PAGES ARE PRODUCED BY BUSINESS REPORTER, WHICH TAKES SOLE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE CONTENTS

Politics

2 w. ago ‘Conversation on future of aid long overdue’: UK looks to lead response to swingeing US cuts

Huge cuts by Trump administration to international aid budgets has left a vacuum and Britain is looking to lead efforts to find a path forwardThe huge US-led cuts to international aid programmes and to the UN budget has prompted the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, to propose a global conference as part of what he described as “a long overdue conversation about the future architecture of aid”.UK Foreign Office officials said the conference was likely to be in the early autumn, and reflected a UK view that since aid cuts were not reversible in the foreseeable future, a discussion about priorities was required. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Trump calls for $163bn in cuts to ‘woke’ and ‘wasteful’ federal spending

Budget blueprint proposes slashing environmental and aid programmes, while boosting support for defence

Politics