The White House is making early progress on trade deals with India &#8212; hoping to ease economic tensions stemming from Trump’s tariffs. Marco Rubio announces a major overhaul of the State Department. And, tech stocks rebound as egg prices drop &#8212; what’s the latest on the U.S. economy?
It’s Wednesday, April 23, and this is the news you need to know to start your day. If you’d rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
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<h2>India And The U.S. Move Toward Trade Deal</h2>
<div id="attachment_910991" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-910991" class="size-large wp-image-910991" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Liberty-Market-Graphic-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Liberty-Market-Graphic-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Liberty-Market-Graphic-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Liberty-Market-Graphic-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Liberty-Market-Graphic-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Liberty-Market-Graphic-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Liberty-Market-Graphic-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Liberty-Market-Graphic-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />(Photo by Anton Petrus via Getty Images)</div>
Topline: The United States and India are reportedly nearing a trade deal. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump met with top CEOs to address their concerns about the trade war.
Shortly after unveiling his “Liberation Day” tariffs, Trump offered a 90-day pause on his proposed tariff hikes to most of America’s trading partners, with the notable exception of China. A baseline rate of 10% is currently being applied to most imports in the meantime. According to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, the administration is set to meet with nearly three dozen countries this week to negotiate more favorable terms.
Vice President JD Vance visited India for four days and met with top government officials, including Prime Minister Modi. Last year, trade between the two countries was nearly $130 billion. U.S. imports from India exceeded exports by about $45 billion last year, which is significant since Trump has made it clear that reducing the trade deficit is a key goal of his tariff policy. Negotiations appear to be going well, but if Trump and Modi don’t make a deal, the tariff rate on Indian goods could jump to 26%.
“President Trump and Prime Minister Modi announced in February that our countries aim to more than double our bilateral trade to $500 billion by the end of the decade,” Vance <a href="https://x.com/VP/status/1914664240763257219">said</a> on Tuesday. “Both of our governments are hard at work on a trade agreement built on shared priorities like creating new jobs, building durable supply chains, and achieving prosperity for our workers. In our meeting yesterday, Prime Minister Modi and I made very good progress on all of those points, and we were especially excited to formally announce that America and India have officially finalized the terms of reference for the trade negotiation.”
In general, the Trump administration appears to be dialing back its earlier, maximalist stance on tariffs. On Monday, the CEOs of Walmart, Target, and Home Depot met with the president to air concerns about trade and tariffs. CNBC also reported that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met with top investors on Tuesday about trade with China. Bessent <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/22/bessent-trump-tariffs-china-deescalate.html">reportedly</a> said that he expects “there will be a de-escalation” in the “very near future.” He added that “no one thinks the current status quo is sustainable.”
<h2>Rubio Proposes Sweeping Cuts To State Department</h2>
<div id="attachment_910985" style="width: 737px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-910985" class="size-large wp-image-910985" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/State-Department-Facade-727x576.jpg" alt="" width="727" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/State-Department-Facade-727x576.jpg 727w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/State-Department-Facade-300x238.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/State-Department-Facade-768x608.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/State-Department-Facade-1536x1217.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/State-Department-Facade-2048x1622.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 727px) 100vw, 727px" />(Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)</div>
Topline: Secretary of State Marco Rubio just announced a sweeping overhaul of the U.S. State Department, aiming to streamline operations and align diplomacy with the Trump administration’s “America First” agenda. The plan includes significant staff cuts and the closure of numerous offices.
Rubio is not being shy in billing this as an aggressive reform plan. In a department-wide email, he called the State Department “bloated” and “beholden to radical political ideology.” Because of this, he aims to reduce the agency’s U.S.-based staff by 15% and reduce the number of offices from 734 to 602.
“Secretary Rubio is announcing a comprehensive reorganization plan that will bring the department into the 21st century,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told the press on Tuesday. “Redundant offices will be removed, and nonstatutory programs that are misaligned with America&#8217;s core national interests will cease to exist.”
There’s also one addition in this plan — Rubio proposes a new Bureau of Emerging Threats that will focus on cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.
None of these proposed cuts have gone into effect just yet &#8212; Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau said an internal working group will develop “thoughtful plans” by July 1. But some of these changes may require congressional approval.  A preliminary budget proposal from the White House Office of Management and Budget that bolsters Rubio’s plan by cutting the State Department’s funding by 50% isn’t likely to pass Congress.
The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, which Rubio has criticized for promoting “left-wing agendas” in countries like Poland and Hungary, is currently on the chopping block, as is the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, which allegedly funneled taxpayer dollars to NGOs that facilitated mass migration, including at the U.S. southern border. Rubio said in a new State Department Substack that these bureaus have been misused to push policies that are misaligned with national priorities. He says that for the sake of efficiency, the goal is to refocus diplomacy on “great power competition” and consolidate region-specific functions into regional bureaus.
Some analysts are saying this is going to alienate career diplomats, and Democrats are saying these moves will diminish U.S. influence abroad. But apparently, some are breathing sighs of relief because they were expecting even deeper cuts after a draft executive order circulated last weekend. That document proposed slashing entire bureaus like African Affairs and closing embassies across sub-Saharan Africa. But Rubio says that was “fake news.”
<h2>Economic Update – Eggcellent News</h2>
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Topline: Consumers could soon see relief on egg prices while markets attempt to calibrate for Trump’s trade policies.
Markets have been remarkably volatile amid uncertainty over ongoing trade negotiations — the DOW plummeted on Monday, but spiked again on Tuesday. The International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday that the global economy could be hit hard by tariffs and slashed its forecast for U.S. growth to 1.8% this year, down from the 2.8% it had predicted in January, but it acknowledged the tariff situation is unpredictable due to the Trump administration using them as a negotiating tactic.
Meanwhile, Americans can expect some relief on everyday expenses. Daily Wire White House correspondent Mary Margaret Olohan spoke to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins about the Trump administration’s ongoing effort to lower the price of eggs.
“A couple months ago, we rolled out our big five point egg plan,” Rollins said. “At the time the eggs were, I think, the highest they&#8217;ve been, perhaps since President Trump left office. I know under Joe Biden, they increased 237%. While the cost of groceries has skyrocketed, nothing has skyrocketed more than eggs … since [Trump took office], the cost of wholesale eggs has gone down 58%.”
Rollins also told us that part of Trump’s plan with tariffs is to correct the agricultural trade deficit that widened under Biden. “There&#8217;s now a $50 billion agriculture trade deficit &#8230; that was zero four years ago. So that means that all of that product &#8212; sorghum, wheat, corn, beef that we were moving out and Trump won, somehow that market disappeared and we&#8217;ve got to get it back.”

FRANCE-US-INDIA-DIPLOMACY-TECHNOLOGY-AI-SUMMIT

Morning Brief: Vance Negotiates India Trade Deal, Rubio Cuts State Dept & Easter Egg Prices

Food

Global Politics

India

Marco Rubio

Media

Morning Wire

Politics

State Department

Tariffs

Trade War

Trump Administration

The Trump administration is planning to close 132 State Department offices and cut U.S. personnel, The Free Press <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/trump-state-shake-up-rubio" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> on Tuesday.
The closures will affect offices that focus on instituting democracy overseas, countering extremism, and protecting human rights, according to The Free Press. The administration seeks to reduce the number of State Department offices by 17%, from 734 to 602. Undersecretaries were also reportedly given 30 days to present plans to slash personnel in individual departments by 15%.
&#8220;Today is the day. Under @POTUS’ leadership and at my direction, we are reversing decades of bloat and bureaucracy at the State Department,&#8221; Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on social media. &#8220;These sweeping changes will empower our talented diplomats to put America and Americans first.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Today is the day. Under <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a>’ leadership and at my direction, we are reversing decades of bloat and bureaucracy at the State Department. 
These sweeping changes will empower our talented diplomats to put America and Americans first. <a href="https://t.co/CGWz3JrYwu">pic.twitter.com/CGWz3JrYwu</a>
&mdash; Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecRubio/status/1914680613275161078?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In a statement, Rubio confirmed that massive changes are coming to the State Department, adding that it is currently &#8220;bloated, bureaucratic, and unable to perform its essential diplomatic mission in this new era of great power competition.&#8221;
&#8220;Over the past 15 years, the Department&#8217;s footprint has had unprecedented growth and costs have soared. But far from seeing a return on investment, taxpayers have seen less effective and efficient diplomacy,&#8221; the statement added. &#8220;The sprawling bureaucracy created a system more beholden to radical political ideology than advancing America&#8217;s core national interests.&#8221;
A report by The New York Times published on Sunday claimed that the State Department&#8217;s restructuring would also &#8220;shut down embassies and consulates across&#8221; Africa. Rubio <a href="https://x.com/marcorubio/status/1913928218450579630" target="_blank" rel="noopener">responded</a> to the Times report, calling it &#8220;fake news.&#8221;
According to The Free Press, internal documents show that the Trump administration plans to eliminate State Department offices &#8220;that focus on a variety of foreign policy issues and are viewed by the Trump administration as no longer necessary.&#8221; Around 700 positions for civil service and foreign service employees in those offices are expected to be cut.
“This approach will empower the Department from the ground up, from the bureaus to the embassies,” Rubio added. “Region-specific functions will be consolidated to increase functionality, redundant offices will be removed, and non-statutory programs that are misaligned with America’s core national interests will cease to exist.”
On Tuesday morning, around a dozen top State Department officials were informed by leadership of the overhaul, a senior official told The Free Press. The State Department is the latest in the Trump administration to be the center of significant cuts.
Trump&#8217;s Department of Government Efficiency project, which is influenced by senior adviser Elon Musk, has targeted numerous government agencies, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Department of Energy, the Department of Education, and the Department of Defense, among others.

‘Sweeping Changes’: State Dept Shuttering More Than 130 Offices, Slashing Staff

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

General

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Ben Shapiro that the closure of the Global Engagement Center (GEC) put an end to a State Department agency that “was labeling American speech by Americans as foreign interference.”
“It metastasized and metamorphosed into a government-run entity that was targeting political speech in America, labeling it disinformation and silencing it, all paid for by the American taxpayers directly and indirectly,” Rubio said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Biden’s regime used YOUR tax dollars to censor you. <a href="https://twitter.com/SecRubio?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SecRubio</a> is nuking their propaganda machine—firing the censors, ending the abuse, restoring free speech.
Full breakdown on The Ben Shapiro Show tomorrow. Don’t miss it. <a href="https://t.co/5V0KptOZyg">pic.twitter.com/5V0KptOZyg</a>
— The Ben Shapiro Show (@BenShapiroShow) <a href="https://twitter.com/BenShapiroShow/status/1912552542719902129?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 16, 2025</a></blockquote>
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President Donald Trump closed the agency, which was created to counter terrorists, but eventually shifted its focus to combating domestic “misinformation,” via executive order.
“What we are announcing today is that we are taking the whole thing down,” Rubio said. “We’re going to be in the business of promoting free speech in America and around the world.”
Rubio added that the organization’s record will be investigated for being “used as a weapon against the American people.”
The GEC was created in 2011 under President Barack Obama as the Center for Strategic Counter Terrorism Communications. It was renamed the GEC in 2016. The organization was tasked with coordinating government communications “aimed at countering foreign terrorist propaganda, particularly from groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda.” Its mission later expanded to countering misinformation from adversaries, including Russia, China, and Iran.
But after the 2016 election, the agency turned its focus from terrorists to countering &#8220;misinformation&#8221; on American social media platforms, which was deemed a national security threat. GEC established an office in Silicon Valley to ramp up pressure on social media companies. The agency is accused of funding projects that created blacklists of media companies, especially right-wing media.
“They started it by saying Al-Qaeda, ISIS, and all of these terrible groups are radicalizing people online, we should do something about it,” Rubio said. “Then it metastasized, and they [said], ‘There is foreign interference in our elections, we need to start going after that. Well then, by 2020, it became a big movement to go after voices inside of American politics and begin to label people.”
Although GEC was forbidden from operating on Americans as a State Department program, it is believed that the organization may have circumvented the ban by funding private companies to classify news as “misinformation.” It reportedly paid groups like Global Disinformation Index and NewsGuard.
The former labeled outlets, including The Daily Wire, as “risky” and put them on its “Dynamic Exclusion List” that was distributed to advertisers. In response, The Daily Wire, The Federalist, and the State of Texas <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daily-wire-texas-ag-ask-court-to-block-state-departments-domestic-misinformation-efforts">sued</a> the GEC for working to “render unprofitable, disfavored press outlets by funding the infrastructure, development, and marketing and promotion of censorship technology and private censorship enterprises to covertly suppress speech of a segment of the American press.”
“The issue here is they put labels on people and then that was used to go to social media companies and used to go to outlets to say you have to deplatform these people, you have to cut back on how much views they’re getting,” Rubio said.
The organization fought to censor “conspiracy theories,” including the belief that the coronavirus came from a Chinese lab, which has since been <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cia-assesses-chinese-lab-leak-responsible-for-coronavirus-pandemic">echoed by the CIA</a>.
When the GEC hit its eight-year sunset, Republicans refused to refund it, leading to the Biden Administration rebranding it under a new name but with similar staff.

Senate Holds Confirmation Hearing For Secretary Of State Nominee Marco Rubio

Marco Rubio Tells Ben Shapiro Why He Nuked State Department’s Censorship Agency

Ben Shapiro

Misinformation

The State Department said on Wednesday it had shuttered the propaganda office that funded efforts to deem media outlets “misinformation” and pressured social media companies to censor content, a major victory for conservative critics who have long pinpointed the agency as key cog of the censorship industry.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that though the Global Engagement Center (GEC) was defunded by Congress last year following scandal, the Biden administration had moved its staff to a similar unit. 
The 2016 authorization of the office had an eight-year sunset, and the Republican-controlled House refused to re-fund the agency in 2024. But before it gave up power, the Biden administration appeared to essentially rebrand the entity, keeping the same staff under a new name: &#8220;the Counter-Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference hub,” or R/FIMI. The State Department said in a court filing that it planned to “realign the Center’s staff and funding to other Department offices.” 
Rubio said all remnants of the operation will be eradicated. All 30 full-time staff that were working for R/FIMI were put on leave, and Congress was notified on Wednesday morning that all full-time staff positions under R/FIMI had been eliminated.
“Under the previous administration, this office, which cost taxpayers more than $50 million per year, spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving,&#8221; Rubio said in a statement. &#8220;This is antithetical to the very principals we should be upholding and inconceivable it was taking place in America. That ends today.&#8221; 
“Individuals in America have been slandered, fired, charged, and even jailed for simply voicing their opinions. That is not an America our Founding Fathers would recognize. It is the responsibility of every government official to continuously work to preserve and protect the freedom for Americans to exercise their free speech,” he added
GEC was created in 2011 as the Center for Strategic Counter Terrorism Communications. In 2016 it was renamed and tasked to “coordinate U.S. government communications aimed at countering foreign terrorist propaganda, particularly from groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda.” 
But after the 2016 election, when Democrats began painting “misinformation” as a national security threat, the GEC turned its attention to American social media platforms, even setting up an office in Silicon Valley to pressure them to remove content, such as “conspiracy theories” like the idea that coronavirus came from a Chinese lab.
Like other State Department programs, GEC was forbidden from operating on Americans.
But it may have circumvented that ban by funding third-party groups to do it for them. GEC ran contests encouraging private companies to get into the business of classifying news as “misinformation,” and paid groups like the Global Disinformation Index and NewsGuard. 
The Global Disinformation Index put American media outlets on a “Dynamic Exclusion List” that was distributed to advertisers and named mainstream publications like the New York Post, Reason Magazine, The Daily Wire, and the Federalist as “risky.”
NewsGuard’s business model is similar. In March 2023, its co-CEO, Gordon Crovitz, praised his company for “empowering governments… to support quality journalism and systemically defund sources of harmful misinformation.” NewsGuard has a deal with the teachers union promoting its media-rating browser extension in schools, and public libraries also use the software. The browser extension causes a “Proceed with Maximum Caution” flag to appear next to search results from flagged outlets.
GEC hosted a website called Disinfo Cloud that boosted products aimed at bankrupt conservative news outlets by convincing advertisers to boycott them on the basis that they are dangerous misinformation that should not be economically supported.
The State Department said the contests “were aimed at countering disinformation and propaganda overseas.” But “Defendants admit that Disinfo Cloud users included some members of academia, the private sector, and tech vendors, including some located within the United States,” it <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txed.226532/gov.uscourts.txed.226532.75.0.pdf">conceded</a> in lawsuit filings.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/five-takeaways-from-twitter-fbi-agents-deposition-in-censorship-lawsuit-brought-by-conservative-states">Elvis Chan</a>, an FBI agent involved in asking Twitter to take down posts including those related to the Hunter Biden laptop, told Congress that he worked regularly with GEC, and that GEC did not seem to be concerned with the First Amendment since it was used to operating in foreign countries.
In December 2023, The Daily Wire and The Federalist <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daily-wire-texas-ag-ask-court-to-block-state-departments-domestic-misinformation-efforts">sued</a> GEC, arguing that it was working to “render unprofitable, disfavored press outlets by funding the infrastructure, development, and marketing and promotion of censorship technology and private censorship enterprises to covertly suppress speech of a segment of the American press.”
“State Department disinformation tools were developed…as tools of warfare…in the context of national security” and “foreign relations,” then “misdirected to be used at home against domestic political opponents,” the suit said.
GEC “researched, assessed, funded, investigated, evaluated, tested, marketed, and/or promoted over 365 so-called Countering Propaganda and Disinformation or ‘CPD’ tools and technologies, including tools and technologies that target American speech and the American  press. These tools and technologies include so-called fact-checking technologies, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-the-biden-administration-used-a-counter-terrorism-grant-to-fund-anti-conservative-propaganda">media literacy</a> tools, media intelligence platforms, social network mapping, and machine learning/artificial intelligence technology,” a legal filing alleged. 
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Texas. The State Department sought to have it moved to a Washington, D.C., judge, but the Texas judge refused. 
GEC operated with a secrecy that suggested a guilty conscience. The State Department admitted in the lawsuit to funding the Global Disinformation Index and NewsGuard through a middleman, Park Capital Investment Group. It <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/state-department-subpoenaed-over-use-of-foreign-propaganda-weapon-against-domestic-media">refused</a> to provide information about the activities even to Congress, forcing the House Small Business Committee to subpoena it.

US-DIPLOMACY-RUBIO-CARICOM

State Department Shutters ‘Misinformation’ Censorship Agency, Salts The Earth

Censorship

The Daily Wire

An immigration judge ruled on Friday that Mahmoud Khalil – who was detained over his actions leading anti-Israel protests at Columbia University — can be deported, giving him until April 23 to appeal the decision.
Judge Jamee Comans <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/columbia-anti-israel-protester-mahmoud-khalil-can-deported-judge-rules" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gave the ruling</a> in a Louisiana court, declaring that the federal government had met the necessary burden of proof to justify removing Khalil from the country.
Judge Comans had requested such proof from the United States government by Wednesday as he was considering the case, and had received a letter from Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Rubio wrote that Khalil had led &#8220;antisemitic protests and disruptive activities, which fosters a hostile environment for Jewish students in the United States.&#8221;
&#8220;Condoning antisemitic conduct and disruptive protests in the United States would severely undermine that significant foreign policy objective,&#8221; he added, citing the 1952 Immigration and Naturalization Act, which gives the U.S. Secretary of State authorization to deport anyone whose continued presence in the country &#8220;would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences.&#8221;
Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum gave the breaking news update during &#8220;The Story&#8221; on Friday afternoon, getting the live report from National Correspondent Brooke Taylor.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
BREAKING: A judge rules that the Trump administration can move forward with deportation efforts for Mahmoud Khalil. | <a href="https://twitter.com/Brooketaylortv?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@brooketaylortv</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/marthamaccallum?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@marthamaccallum</a> <a href="https://t.co/JmAGnd3RPu">pic.twitter.com/JmAGnd3RPu</a>
&mdash; Fox News (@FoxNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/1910787248255025369?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 11, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Khalil spoke after the ruling, complaining that President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration had specifically sent him to another jurisdiction to ensure that the ruling would not be fair.
&#8220;I would like to quote what you said last time that there&#8217;s nothing that&#8217;s more important to this court than due process rights and fundamental fairness. Clearly, what we witnessed today, neither of these principles were present today or in this whole process,&#8221; he claimed.
&#8220;This is exactly why the Trump administration has sent me to this court, 1,000 miles away from my family. I just hope that the urgency that you deemed fit for me are afforded to the hundreds of others who have been here without hearing for months,&#8221; he added.

Pro-Palestinian rally in New York City

Judge Rules Columbia’s Pro-Hamas Agitator Mahmoud Khalil Can Be Deported

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WASHINGTON— As the United Kingdom negotiates a trade deal with the United States, the country&#8217;s leaders are grappling with a new understanding of the &#8220;Special Relationship&#8221; — namely, that President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration is very serious about European nations respecting the rights of their citizens.
Vice President JD Vance roundly condemned Britain&#8217;s prosecution of pro-life activists in February, and over the weekend, the State Department announced that it is monitoring the case of Livia Tossici-Bolt, a woman prosecuted for holding a sign near a Bournemouth abortion clinic that reads: &#8220;Here to talk if you want.&#8221;
&#8220;U.S.-UK relations share a mutual respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms,&#8221; the State Department&#8217;s Democracy, Human Rights, &amp; Labor Bureau said in a statement. &#8220;However, as Vice President Vance has said, we are concerned about freedom of expression in the United Kingdom.&#8221;
The State Department confirmed to The Daily Wire on Tuesday evening that it is monitoring Tossici-Bolt&#8217;s case, that it is important to the United States that the United Kingdom &#8220;respect and protect freedom of expression,&#8221; as the department said over the weekend, and that State Department senior advisor Sam Samson met with Tossici-Bolt in the United Kingdom recently. 
Sources close to the situation told The Daily Wire that State Department officials held bilateral meetings with members of the British government about the topic, including those officials pushing hate speech laws within the United Kingdom. The United States has emphasized that its alliance with the United Kingdom must be civilizational, and that American allies must be on board with American values, including freedom of speech.
Now, headlines from The Telegraph and other high-profile European publications are signaling that the United Kingdom&#8217;s censorship of its citizens could actually be a massive deal in regard to the transatlantic relationship.
&#8220;No free trade with US without free speech, [British Prime Minister Keir] Starmer warned,&#8221; reads a Telegraph headline, with the subhead: &#8220;PM’s hopes of avoiding Donald Trump’s tariffs may hinge on case of pro-life activist arrested for peaceful protest.&#8221;
&#8220;[UK officials] were surprised the U.S. cares about this,&#8221; one source shared. &#8220;It&#8217;s a field of diplomacy that hasn&#8217;t been addressed.&#8221;
A source familiar with the trade negotiations told The Telegraph that there should be “no free trade without free speech&#8221; — likely a point of concern to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s attempts to strike a free trade deal with the United States. It&#8217;s a big change for British leaders used to dealing with President Joe Biden&#8217;s administration, which, one source pointed out to The Daily Wire, wasn&#8217;t worried at all about the matter — in fact, he was jailing pro-life activists within the United States.
<div id="attachment_901637" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/as-britain-negotiates-trade-deal-state-department-takes-aim-at-its-censorship-of-pro-life-woman/munich-security-conference-opening-day" rel="attachment wp-att-901637"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-901637" class="wp-image-901637 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2199525377-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2199525377-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2199525377-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2199525377-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2199525377.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>US Vice President JD Vance during the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025.  Photographer: Alex Kraus/Bloomberg via Getty Images</div>
Tossici-Bolt is one of several pro-life activists who believe that abortion is the murder of an unborn child and have sought to change hearts on the matter through silent protest and prayer outside of abortion clinics. Abortion clinic &#8220;buffer zone&#8221; laws in the United Kingdom prohibit these basic activities, and authorities have arrested individuals like Isabel Vaughn-Spruce as they silently pray in buffer zones, accusing them of illegal protest.
A verdict in Tossici-Bolt&#8217;s case is due Friday, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/31/anti-abortion-protest-bournemouth-free-speech-row-trump/">according to the Telegraph</a>.
The publicity around the issue prompted Kemi Badenoch, a conservative member of Parliament, to warn that free speech in Britain is &#8220;at risk&#8221; and that the United Kingdom should not be “persecuting people for expressing themselves.&#8221;
“We have freedom of expression in this country, we have free speech in this country,&#8221; she <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/04/01/free-speech-at-risk-amid-abortion-row-badenoch-warns/?ICID=continue_without_subscribing_reg_first">said</a>. &#8220;However, it is at risk because a lot of people are expanding the law way beyond the original intention.”
Britain&#8217;s Business Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, downplayed the matter Tuesday morning on BBC radio, saying, &#8220;Obviously there are things from different people in the administration that they’ve said in the past about this, but it’s not been part of the trade negotiations that I’ve been part of.”
Meanwhile, free speech allies like ADF International are thrilled that the United States has spoken up.
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“We are very grateful to the US for standing up for freedom of speech in Great Britain at a time when our leaders are intent on censoring us. This censorship has been happening gradually over decades but the implications of it are being fully realized now,&#8221;  Lorcan Price, an Irish barrister and legal counsel for ADF International, told The Daily Wire on Tuesday evening.
&#8220;It is right for the US to call out human rights abuses in the UK out of concern as a close ally — at times it is necessary for allies to speak frankly and truthfully to each other and this is one of those times,&#8221; he added. &#8220;We sincerely hope that the increased attention on Livia’s prosecution will lead to a return to free speech in the UK.”
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Vance condemned the United Kingdom&#8217;s censorship in strong terms when he spoke at the Munich Security Conference in February,  arguing that “free speech in Britain and across Europe &#8220;was in retreat,&#8221; and referencing the story of Adam Smith Connor, an army veteran who prayed outside an abortion clinic in the United Kingdom on behalf of his unborn son, who his girlfriend aborted years earlier.
The vice president told the gathered world leaders: “Adam was found guilty of breaking the government’s new buffer zones law, which criminalizes silent prayer and other actions that could influence a person’s decision within two hundred meters of an abortion facility.&#8221; 
Speaking Tuesday evening at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., at the premiere of Rod Dreher&#8217;s &#8220;Live Not By Lies&#8221; documentary, Vance argued that if citizens around the world &#8220;speak the truth, if we refuse to live by lies, then I think we can redeliver on the promise of civilization.&#8221;
&#8220;We can rebuild the kind of society where virtue and freedom in our ancient liberties are preserved and enforced, and facilitated by our government, rather than torn down by our government,&#8221; the vice president said, adding, &#8220;You see, in Europe, people arrested for praying, and you have the police asking them, well what are you praying about? As if it was any of the police&#8217;s business.&#8221;
As for Tossici-Bolt herself, she said Monday that she&#8217;s grateful to the United States for “prioritizing the preservation and promotion of freedom of expression and for engaging in robust diplomacy to that end”.
“It deeply saddens me that the UK is seen as an international embarrassment when it comes to free speech,&#8221; she told The Telegraph. &#8220;My case, involving only a mere invitation to speak, is but one example of the extreme and undeniable state of censorship in Great Britain today.”
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vance42

As Britain Negotiates Trade Deal, State Department Takes Aim At Its Censorship Of Pro-Life Woman

JD Vance

Pro-Life Movement

United Kingdom

WASHINGTON—First Lady Melania Trump honored female recipients with the &#8220;International Women of Courage Awards&#8221; on Tuesday afternoon, sharing that these awardees &#8220;prove that love can inspire extraordinary valor even in the face of vulnerability.&#8221;
The First Lady co-hosted the annual International Women of Courage Awards ceremony at the State Department with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Dressed in a long, leopard print trench coat, Melania focused on the unique capability of these female advocates, activists, and leaders to act in the name of love.
&#8220;Today, we celebrate courage —a strength that is based in love,&#8221; she said.&#8221;This truth is illustrated through our honorees, who prove that love can inspire extraordinary valor even in the face of vulnerability.&#8221;
&#8220;Their remarkable stories are a testament to the power of love in practice — for family, community, and our world,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;This is especially evident in places where their passion defies convention and when it has been shown at great personal risk of stigma, persecution, or harm.&#8221;
This is the fifth year that Melania Trump has attended the event. Her predecessor, Jill Biden, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-admin-gives-international-women-of-courage-award-to-a-biological-man">previously gave</a> an International Women of Courage award to a man who identifies as a woman named Alba Rueda, Argentina’s Special Envoy for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and the first trans-identifying politician to hold a senior governmental position. Rueda had made a name for himself pushing pro-transgender policies in Argentina.
<div id="attachment_901335" style="width: 871px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/melania-celebrates-women-at-state-department-awards-ceremony-strength-that-is-based-in-love/us-politics-diplomacy-women-2" rel="attachment wp-att-901335"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-901335" class="wp-image-901335 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2207477418-861x576.jpg" alt="" width="861" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2207477418-861x576.jpg 861w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2207477418-300x201.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2207477418-768x514.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2207477418.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 861px) 100vw, 861px" /></a>Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images</div>
Awardees at Tuesday&#8217;s event included human rights defender Henriette Da; Hamas hostage survivor Amit Soussana; womens&#8217; rights activist Major Velena Iga; Phillippines &#8220;Mama Ranger&#8221; Angelique Songco; human rights advocate Georgiana Pascu; women&#8217;s rights leader Zabib Musa Loro Bakhit; journalist Namini Wijedasa; and Yemeni advocate Amat Al-Salam Abdullah Abdo al-Hajj.
Additionally, the Madeleine Albright Honorary Group Award was given to the “Women Student Protest Leaders of Bangladesh.&#8221;
The First Lady described these awardees as &#8220;brave women&#8221; who have &#8220;refused to let fear or hardship define them.&#8221; She specifically singled out Pascu, saying that she &#8220;exemplifies love in action.&#8221;
&#8220;Georgiana is a &#8216;watchdog&#8217; who defends the dignity of Romanians whose voices cannot be heard,&#8221; Melania explained.
&#8220;She fearlessly enters facilities designated as &#8216;care centers&#8217; to rescue people with disabilities who are unwittingly held captive. In fact, Georgiana usually shows up unannounced and discovers the unimaginable — helpless adults and children bound, sedated, starving, and in extreme cases, dying. Thanks to Georgiana’s brave work, dozens of offenders have been charged with human trafficking, exploitation, and even organized crime.&#8221;
The First Lady also extended a message to women across the world who advocate on behalf of others.
<div id="attachment_901337" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/melania-celebrates-women-at-state-department-awards-ceremony-strength-that-is-based-in-love/state-department-hosts-19th-annual-international-women-of-courage-award-ceremony" rel="attachment wp-att-901337"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-901337" class="wp-image-901337 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2207993780-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2207993780-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2207993780-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2207993780-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2207993780.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images</div>
&#8220;Let us also take a moment to acknowledge those who persist in their struggles,&#8221; she said. &#8220;For each of them, love serves as a powerful catalyst, instilling a profound sense of purpose in their endeavors. To the women who are driven to speak out for justice, even though their voices are trembling. To the women who are motivated to rise up for their community, when all others remain indifferent.To the women who feel compelled to heal wounds caused by hatred – and cherish peace.&#8221;
&#8220;These extraordinary women illuminate the transformative power of love in shaping our world,&#8221; she added. &#8220;Their journeys remind us that true courage is born from a deep commitment to others, showing that love fuels the call for justice. Through their brave actions, they inspire us to embrace our own potential for change, teaching us that while courage drives us forward, it is love that lays the groundwork for lasting impact. Let their stories motivate us to take courageous steps, knowing that each act of love can spark a ripple of transformation.&#8221;

US-POLITICS-DIPLOMACY-WOMEN

Melania Celebrates Women At State Department Awards Ceremony: ‘Strength That Is Based In Love’

Jill Biden

Melania Trump

WASHINGTON—The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) submitted an official notification to Congress on Friday that the State Department will be assuming responsibility for most of the agency&#8217;s functions and ongoing programming.
All personnel will receive a Reduction in Force (RIF) notification on Friday, a USAID official shared with The Daily Wire, informing them that all non-statutory positions at USAID will be eliminated. That includes USAID employees around the world.
Approximately 4,600 USAID personnel will be RIF&#8217;d across the agency&#8217;s foreign and civil service.
Personnel will begin receiving RIF notices via email within a few minutes of that notification. Those notices will specify one of two final separation dates: either July 1, 2025, or September 2, 2025.
The historic move realigns the United States&#8217; handling of foreign aid, implementing foreign policy to align with the interest of President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration. USAID officials say that bringing its programs under the State Department umbrella will enhance the impact, efficiency, accountability, and uniformity of its foreign assistance programs.
In a Friday statement, USAID Deputy Administrator and Chief Operating Officer Jeremy Lewin said the agency has strayed from its original mission to help stem the world&#8217;s &#8220;gravest crises and support allies in need.&#8221; 
&#8220;But the independent establishment of USAID has grown inefficient and unwieldy, too often contradicting rather than reinforcing the foreign policy of the President and nation,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;By bringing USAID’s core life-saving and strategic aid programs under the umbrella of the State Department, this Administration will significantly enhance the efficiency, accountability, uniformity, and strategic impact of foreign assistance programs – and ensure that our nation and President speaks with one voice in foreign affairs,&#8221; Lewin added.
USAID argues that the move is not about ending foreign aid, but reorienting how the United States delivers aid to &#8220;maximize impact,&#8221; adopting a &#8220;returns-oriented mindset&#8221; and centering on &#8220;American strategic interests.&#8221;
&#8220;Like any restructuring, there will inevitably be disruptions,&#8221; Lewin said. &#8220;From Secretary Rubio down, we are committed to ensuring that USAID personnel remain safe and that the Agency’s ongoing life-saving aid programs remain both intact and operational.&#8221;
Over the next three months, USAID and the State Department will work closely to transfer USAID&#8217;s programming over. During this period, the State Department will be assessing its own needs and conducting an independent hiring process, which will be available to eligible USAID employees. A USAID official told The Daily Wire that the agency has to wait 60 days before they can rehire someone at a different government agency — giving notice today will potentially allow employees who are RIF&#8217;d to be rehired at State in 60 days.
By July 1, 2025, the State Department will have assumed responsibility for USAID&#8217;s remaining programming, and many USAID employees will have gone over to the State Department or will be seeking other employment. Officials expect that USAID&#8217;s operations will all have been transferred, or otherwise shut down, over to the State Department by September 2, 2025.
Currently, USAID has 898 active and ongoing programs that total an estimated cost of about $78 billion and an unobligated remaining value of $8.3 billion.
Since January 20, a total of 5,341 awards have been terminated, USAID says, representing a total estimated cost of $75.9 billion and unobligated savings of $27.7 billion.

USAID

USAID To Lay Off 4,600 Employees, Will Merge With State Department By Fall

Congress

Ukraine has accepted a partial ceasefire with Russia on Wednesday after a “very good phone call” between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky.
The call came one day after a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-putin-agree-to-begin-ceasefire-negotiations-on-three-hour-call">similar conversation</a> between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and centered on many of the issues previously discussed in that call. Putin rejected an unconditional ceasefire offered by American and Ukrainian negotiators earlier this month, but did accept an offer to restrict attacks on energy infrastructure in both countries. Further negotiations will be conducted in Saudi Arabia, and will include discussions on potentially expanding the partial ceasefire to include the Black Sea as an intermediate step to a full ceasefire.
“I had a positive, very substantive, and frank conversation with President of the United States Donald Trump,” Zelensky said in a statement posted to <a href="https://x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1902412196304531701">X</a>, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “We believe that together with America, with President Trump, and under American leadership, lasting peace can be achieved this year.” 
Trump also seemed optimistic about the ongoing peace talks, and said that he and Zelenskyy had a “very good phone call”, a far cry from the explosive confrontation between the two leaders last month during a joint press conference in the Oval Office.
“Much of the discussion was based on the call made yesterday with President Putin in order to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs,” Trump posted on <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114189841352600682">Truth Social</a>. &#8220;We are very much on track, and I will ask Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, to give an accurate description of the points discussed.”
Rubio and Waltz put out a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/2025/03/statement-from-secretary-rubio-and-nsc-waltz-on-call-with-zelenskyy/">joint statement</a> shortly afterward, describing the conversation as “fantastic” and offering up additional details, including Ukrainian requests for additional air defense systems, prisoner exchanges, and the thousands of missing Ukrainian children allegedly abducted and taken into Russia.
Trump and Zelensky also discussed Ukraine’s energy supply, including its nuclear power plants. Trump proposed American investment in and ownership of parts of Ukraine’s grid, apparently following a similar train of thought to the previously proposed minerals deal, which would have created an American economic interest in Ukraine and potentially put America contractors in the way of future Russian aggression. 
The risk of killing American civilians or harming American interests could act as a deterrent in lieu of a traditional security guarantee. “American ownership of those plants would be the best protection for that infrastructure and support for Ukrainian energy infrastructure,&#8221; the joint statement from Rubio and Waltz read.

President Trump Calls Prime Minister Of Ireland From Oval Office

Ukraine Accepts Partial Ceasefire After ‘Very Good Call’ Between Zelensky And Trump

Donald Trump

Russia

Ukraine

Ukraine-Russia War

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday directing all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices to be removed from the foreign service. 
The order, which builds off previous DEI-related executive orders, directs Secretary of State Marco Rubio to remove any reference to DEI from the Department of State’s hiring and promotion practices. Instead, Trump said that the only hiring criteria should be merit. 
“Over the last 4 years, divisive and discriminatory policies were systematically embedded into every part of the Federal Government, including hiring processes and employee performance evaluations in the Foreign Service,” the executive order said. “It is the policy of the Federal Government that hiring in foreign policy positions, like hiring in all other parts of the Government, shall be based solely on merit.&#8221;
The order said that Rubio should remove DEI from the Decision Criteria for Tenure and Promotion in the Foreign Service, a <a href="https://pathtoforeignservice.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/2022-2025-Core-Precepts.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">manual</a> put out by the Biden administration that included DEI as a factor in the promotability of U.S. Foreign Service employees.
This manual stipulated that Foreign Service employees advance &#8220;diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion in words and actions&#8221; and focus on hiring &#8220;diverse&#8221; candidates for key roles.
Trump’s executive order stated that Foreign Service recruitment, hiring, and promotion should not consider a person’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. 
Additionally, the order said that all Foreign Service employees are prohibited from promoting a “discriminatory equity ideology” while in their official capacities. The Trump administration defined this ideology as treating “individuals as members of preferred or disfavored groups, rather than as individuals, and minimizes agency, merit, and capability in favor of immoral generalizations.”
Rubio and several other cabinet leaders including Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins are also directed in the order to determine if any current Foreign Service employees have purposely &#8220;engaged in unconstitutional or otherwise illegal discrimination based upon race or other protected characteristics, including actions motivated by discriminatory equity ideology.”
If so, they are told to take “appropriate action,” which was not directly specified. 
Trump has already signed numerous DEI-related executive orders, including one to cut off funding for schools that push DEI and one to eliminate DEI preferences in federal contracting. On his first day, Trump signed an order stipulating that all federal hiring be based on merit, practical skills, and devotion to the Constitution.

President Trump Meets With NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte In The Oval Office Of The White House

Trump Ends Biden’s DEI-Focused Foreign Service Hiring And Promotion Practices

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Executive Orders

Secretary of State

Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed in principle to the 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine, although the exact details would have to be brokered with the United States.
“The idea itself is correct, and we certainly support it,” Putin told a news conference in Moscow. “But there are issues that we need to discuss, and I think that we need to discuss it with our American colleagues and partners.”
The announcement comes days after Ukraine offered a temporary truce at the urging of the United States. In February, the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russia entered its 4th year, and President Donald Trump has made ending the conflict a priority of his administration.
Ukraine has been vocally skeptical of any deal with Putin, pointing to his history of reneging on previous agreements. For example, the 2014 Minsk Accords, which France and Germany negotiated to end hostilities in the Donbas region, an area in eastern Ukraine with a large Russian-speaking population that rebelled against the Ukrainian government after a pro-EU revolution ousted the previous Russian-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in February of that year.
This skepticism led to a brief but very public falling out with the United States after a contentious joint press conference saw Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelenskyy <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-cancels-meeting-sends-zelensky-packing-he-can-come-back-when-he-is-ready-for-peace">ejected</a> from the Oval Office without signing a pre-negotiated minerals deal with the United States. The rift, and the subsequent suspension of American military aid and intelligence sharing, appears to have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ukraine-russia-ceasefire-rubio">mended</a> on Tuesday.
“Now is the time to begin a process toward lasting peace,” a joint<a href="https://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/spilna-zayava-za-pidsumkami-zustrichi-delegacij-ukrayini-ta-96553"> statement</a> by American and Ukrainian diplomats read. “The United States will communicate to Russia that Russian reciprocity is the key to achieving peace.”
The United States has applied considerable pressure on the Ukrainians to get them to the negotiating table. It has significant leverage over the embattled nation as its primary military supplier. Still, the Trump administration recently signaled that a similar pressure campaign could be used against Russia if they refused to accept the deal.
On Wednesday, Trump said peace was “up to Russia now” and hinted that he might ramp up economic sanctions against Russia if Putin did not accept the offered ceasefire.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent clarified this stance on Thursday in an interview with CNBC, stating that America was “willing to apply maximum pressure on both sides” with sanctions of ‘the highest scale’ on Russia.
Many observers have argued that Russia has little incentive to accept the ceasefire at the moment, as their forces are currently advancing across much of the Ukrainian front, and a 30-day pause could allow the Ukrainian troops to retrench and recuperate, thus breaking their current momentum. 
&#8220;A 30-day temporary ceasefire. Well, what does it give us? It gives us nothing. It only gives the Ukrainians an opportunity to regroup, gain strength and, to continue the same thing,&#8221; Yuri Ushakov <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/russia-kursk-u-s-ceasefire-talks-ukraine-1.7482377">told</a> Russian media.
Others have made the opposite case – that Russia may use the pause to rearm and recuperate before a renewed offensive.
However, some have argued that the glacial pace of the advance, the heavy cost of each square mile, and the economic benefits of loosened sanctions could incentivize Russia to accept a deal.
Meanwhile, Russia has made considerable gains in Kursk, a Russian territory that was invaded by Ukraine roughly 7 months ago and has been slowly taken back. On Wednesday, Putin told Russian media that he expected Russian forces “to completely free the Kursk region from the enemy in the nearest future.”
The announcement by the Russian President came <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-kursk-sudzhba-military-occupation-17cebbc24642ab56d78112eba7eb7509">hours</a> after American Special Envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow on Thursday to continue peace negotiations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin Attends The Annual Meeting Of The Interior Ministry Board

Putin Backs Trump Admin’s Ceasefire Proposal In Principle

Europe

A government inspector general on Wednesday sounded the alarm about problems with the now-shuttered U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and underscored how “non-government organizations” receive billions of dollars from the United States in corruption-prone regions with limited accountability.
The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said in a new report that “since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, the U.S. government has spent billions of U.S. taxpayer funds on projects intended to provide for Afghans’ basic needs.”
The report said the State Department and USAID have turned to Public International Organizations, its term for NGOs, “as the primary means of delivering this aid,” but “have been inconsistent in their efforts to formally require PIOs to agree to U.S. government oversight on how funding is spent and whether projects are delivering intended results” rather than being “diverted to the Taliban.”
For example, the USAID Mission to Afghanistan’s standard contract with NGOs did not require them to permit American officials to visit to see what they were actually doing.
USAID had a contract with a third-party monitoring group whose visits it could have used as the next-best thing to American eyes on the ground, but it seemingly paid that group without actually having it do any visits, the <a href="https://www.sigar.mil/Portals/147/Files/Reports/Audits-and-Inspections/Performance-Audits/SIGAR-25-16-AR.pdf">inspector general’s report</a> said.
USAID seemed to simply trust the groups receiving the money, which were often partnerships with foreign governments. That didn’t always go well.
For example, USAID funded the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for a “water, sanitation, and hygiene project in Afghanistan&#8221; in 2024. It never bothered to visit. The inspector general did, and “found numerous issues that UNICEF did not report to USAID. Had USAID conducted site visits, it could have identified these deficiencies and asked UNICEF to address them.”
Likewise, State Department units in highly sensitive areas, such as the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs/ Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, paid for programs whose operators wouldn’t even let their benefactors check on them.
The weapons removal office did not make site visits part of its contracts, and some beneficiaries, including the UN Mine Action Service, “refused site visits.” Those visits would have been helpful because it turned out that the groups weren’t always forthcoming. The UN Mine group at one point “suspended activities due to Taliban officials attempting to renegotiate the PIO’s operating agreements,” but didn’t tell the State Department until months later.
Only one out of five State Department bureaus reviewed by the inspector general included language in its standard contract saying “the recipient agrees to allow access for site visits by USAID and/or its agents as necessary.”
The State Department also does not require PIOs to report instances of “diversion,” which means “instances of waste, fraud, abuse, corruption, coercion, aid diversion, and interference” by groups like the Taliban.
USAID is supposed to require its contractors to report such misconduct, but “USAID/AFG included an optional diversion reporting clause in only some of its project contributions.”
“Without diversion reporting, USAID and State will not know the true extent to which the Taliban is interfering with and benefiting from U.S. funded activities,” the inspector general said.
State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs and the weapons removal office “do not include a reporting diversion clause in their agreement templates,” meaning “the bureaus may not be receiving timely reporting on incidents of diversion or interference” despite the obvious potential for fraud or deadly interference by terror-supporting groups.
Some instances of that are known. For example, in 2024 the Taliban asked State Department beneficiaries to make a list of people who were receiving benefits, and to let the Taliban be involved in selecting who would benefit. The Taliban also forced the NGO to suspend “mental health and psychosocial support activities, as well as suspension of a female youth center.”
State’s narcotics office (INL) may have also had a casual attitude towards aid diversion and transparency.
“When we asked INL for information about aid diversion in May 2023 and February 2024, it claimed to have no information. However, in September 2024, INL provided us with an October 2023 report from the Colombo Plan that outlined eight instances of Taliban interference,” it said. “The bureau learned about these instances through meetings in December 2022 and January 2023. INL did not explain why it did not share this information when we asked.”
The inspector general said the Secretary of State should require all agreements to allow site visits, and develop a standard process for beneficiaries to report fraud or misconduct.
“Monitoring projects through periodic site visits (including by third party monitors) is an essential management tool to help ensure that U.S. taxpayer money is not being wasted on projects that are not meeting their intended goals or that are undermined by interference by the Taliban,” it said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week that most of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/rubio-announces-83-of-usaid-programs-cancelled-musk-calls-move-tough-but-necessary" target="_blank" rel="noopener">USAID has been abolished</a>, and its remaining programs will be moved to State. That decision came following concern that its grants and contracts often amounted to slush funds for nefarious international actors.

Trump And Musk’s USAID ‘Shut Down’ Threat Opens Door For China

USAID, State Failed To Monitor NGOs To Ensure They Weren’t Funding Taliban, IG Says

Afghanistan

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