The New York Times reports that millions of dollars worth of USAID-funded contraceptives destined for sub-Saharan Africa were deemed unusable after being improperly stored in a Belgian warehouse.

In the wake of USAID's closure, many are finding it nearly impossible to track which humanitarian programs — like key Sudan governance initiatives — were quietly preserved under the State Department. World Politics Review reports that this growing opacity around U.S. humanitarian spending makes it increasingly difficult to hold the administration accountable or understand the true scope of what has been lost.

The U.S. State Department has established a new Bureau of Disaster and Humanitarian Response — staffed by roughly 200 officials operating across 12 global hubs with approximately $5.4 billion in annual funding — marking the formal conclusion of the Trump administration's overhaul of foreign aid following the dismantling of USAID, according to Reuters.

The U.S. has already spent at least $12 billion on its war with Iran in just the first two weeks of the conflict — a sum that exceeds the entirety of Trump's cuts to humanitarian aid in his first term, and that critics argue could instead fund nearly three years of U.S. foreign assistance at current levels. TIME breaks down what that spending could have covered.

The Guttmacher Institute warns that, on top of actions already taken to dismantle USAID and cut international family planning assistance, the sweeping new Global Gag Rule policy threatens to deepen harm to an estimated 50 million women and girls in low- and middle-income countries already denied contraceptive care.

On a recent episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver took aim at the Trump administration's dismantling of USAID, calling the move morally indefensible and detailing its deadly consequences for vulnerable populations around the world.

El País follows three women across three countries to show how the collapse of U.S. foreign aid has hit women and girls hardest, stripping away maternal care, family planning, and gender-based violence protections that their governments had long neglected. The piece underscores a stark milestone: 2025 marked the first year in a quarter century that child mortality rose, a trend researchers link directly to the dismantling of USAID and the elimination of 94% of U.S. funding for sexual and reproductive health.

U.S. foreign aid cuts have gutted funding for gender-based violence programs worldwide, with over $400 million in grants eliminated and more than 40% of organizations forced to scale back or shut down entirely, according to NPR.

The New York Times reports that the Trump administration has awarded a $150 million, two-year contract to wind down USAID — but has explicitly barred any former USAID employees from working on it, citing the need to "avoid the risk of impaired objectivity."

A year into the legal battle over the dismantling of USAID, more than a half-dozen lawsuits are still winding through the courts — repeatedly stalled by jurisdictional disputes and procedural technicalities rather than advancing to the core constitutional questions, Foreign Policy reports.

Based on an internal State Department email obtained by The Atlantic, the Trump administration is moving to end all humanitarian funding to seven African countries including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Somalia, and Zimbabwe, canceling programs it had previously classified as lifesaving, with the stated rationale that there is "no strong nexus between the humanitarian response and U.S. national interests."

The Independent reports that in Zimbabwe's drought-ravaged Mwenezi district, the collapse of USAID funding has forced families to pull children out of school and survive on one meal a day, with mothers fearing their daughters will be driven into exploitative relationships with gold-panners who now flash cash in desperate communities.

While the $51.4 billion foreign aid package recently signed by Trump has been framed as a restoration of slashed global health programs, analysis from KFF shows the 2026 global health budget remains around 6% lower than the previous year — and the contracting infrastructure that once turned funding into services has largely disappeared, reports The Independent.

According to The Washington Post, the Trump administration’s America First strategy has trickled down to what’s left of the government’s humanitarian apparatus, potentially leading to millions of deaths by 2030. At a time when more delicate approaches to the world’s ‘middle powers’ are required, opinion polls have shown tanking public approval of the United States in many countries around the world.

Instead of being directed at where they can save the most lives, U.S. humanitarian efforts now seem to be aimed primarily at where they can advance the Trump administration’s other priorities, according to The Atlantic. This radical shift in the approach to foreign aid seems to be less grounded in past bipartisan narratives of humanitarianism or charity, and more focused on strategic engagement to advance the current administration’s goals.

A new Lancet study examines how the dismantling of international aid by the U.S. and other countries could undo decades of health gains, projecting up to 9.4 million extra deaths by 2030 if current conditions persist. This projection provides an early picture of how funding reductions could undo decades of health gains, leading to upsurges in HIV/AIDS, malaria and hunger across the developing world, according to The Washington Post.

The Guardian reports that a year after the Trump administration’s cuts to U.S. aid, Australian charities and development programs in the Pacific have struggled to fill the resulting gaps in funding for education, health, and food security, with some groups describing impacts that have led to preventable hardship and deaths.

Recent U.S. foreign policy shifts toward isolationism labeled “America Alone” conflict with broad public opinion showing Americans generally support multilateral engagement, alliances, and advocating for human rights and democracy abroad, according to Just Security.