The Epoch Times

JOHANNESBURG—African countries reacted with shock when the U.S. government recently cut $13 billion in financial assistance. But analysts said the move could spur those countries toward better governance, and even critics said it shines a spotlight on the most corrupt nations on the planet. In fiscal year 2024, the U.S. government gave almost $13 billion in taxpayer funds to aid countries in Africa, which is rated the world’s most corrupt region by watchdog Transparency International. Most of the money was administered by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which has since had most of its programs paused and been folded into the State Department. The money was largely directed to programs to feed people in famine-affected areas and to treat and prevent infectious diseases such as HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis. The United Nations has suggested that millions of lives are at stake because of the withdrawal of U.S. aid. It says nearly 16 million Ethiopians relied on grain donated by the United States in 2024, as the East African country was hammered by drought and a civil war. In South Africa, money from USAID was paying the salaries of staff from hundreds of nonprofits that were working on the largest antiretroviral rollout program in the world, giving medicine to almost 6 million people infected with HIV. “The program is not even running at half capacity at the moment,“ Foster Mohale, spokesperson for South Africa’s National Department of Health, told The Epoch Times. ”Millions aren’t getting the pills they need to stay healthy because the organizations who were working with us are now closed.” Stories like these abound across Africa. But Chris Maroleng, of the nonprofit Good Governance Africa, told The Epoch Times that President Donald Trump’s decision to pause funding “shines a bright spotlight on the corruption and selfishness of many African regimes.” “We must all put pressure on our leaders to govern cleanly and to share the wealth of our continent with their people—not by doling out money, but by providing basic services,” he said. “In the grand scheme of things, that’s not much to ask for.” Maroleng said it is Trump’s right to halt financial assistance to Africa, but that many business, political, and civil society leaders he has spoken with “are disappointed, even angry, at the speed with which this was done.” “It means they have no time in which to readjust budgets and little time to look elsewhere for help,” he said. Read the full story: https://lnkd.in/evviRHZv

Quick take: the world is watching! There are incredible numbers of press at The White House today, as U.S. President Trump was announcing “Liberation Day Reciprocal Tariffs” & finally closing the de minimis loophole that was giving communist China massive unearned advantage.

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Tensions have been simmering between the United States and communist China as the two countries escalate tariffs on each other’s imports. Meanwhile, Beijing’s rhetoric has become increasingly confrontational. In early March, the Chinese Embassy in Washington shared a social media post from its Foreign Ministry, repeating its message: “If war is what the U.S. wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end.” U.S. President Donald Trump has warned that although the United States does not seek war with China, it is “very well-equipped to handle it.” Trump has imposed an additional 20 percent tariff on all goods made in China, citing a national emergency on the continued trafficking of fentanyl—a deadly opioid that is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine—into the United States. To this day, China remains the primary source of fentanyl precursors, which are shipped to Mexico, where they’re manufactured into the illicit drug. It is then smuggled into the United States mainly via the southern border. In response to Trump’s added tariff, Beijing imposed an additional 15 percent tariff on U.S. coal and natural gas and an extra 10 percent on agricultural equipment and pickup trucks. The communist regime has also called the fentanyl epidemic the United States’ “own problem“ and has cast the U.S. tariffs as ”blackmail.” Yuan Hongbing, a former law professor at Peking University in China who now lives in Australia, said the U.S. opioid epidemic is far from the self-inflicted wound the CCP has suggested it is. The Chinese regime has played a significant role in the United States’ fentanyl crisis, and blaming the United States for it has long been Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping’s strategy, Yuan told NTD, The Epoch Times’ sister media outlet, in a recent episode of the Chinese-language program “Pinnacle View.” Yuan, who has insider access to senior CCP leaders, said Xi has consistently given internal directives during both Trump’s first and second terms that Beijing must maintain the narrative that the drug crises in both Europe and the United States are not linked to China. Yuan said the regime has also been directed by Xi to assert that China makes the chemical precursors legally and that if they are converted into deadly drugs and smuggled into the United States or Europe, it is not China’s responsibility. The China expert further stated that fentanyl is at the core of Xi’s bid to “take revenge” on the West. He said Xi blames the West for subjecting China to a century of humiliation as a result of the Opium Wars in the mid-19th century. During that time, China had to sign a series of treaties that ceded Chinese territory and opened Chinese ports to foreign control. Read the full report: https://lnkd.in/eHsyk3Dp

While all three of the largest countries in North America are dealing with outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu, egg prices are consistently lower in Canada and Mexico than in the United States. Consumers may wonder why. In Canada, the average price for a dozen eggs was about $3.30 in January, according to Canada’s national statistics agency. In Mexico, the price for a dozen eggs is around $2 or lower. Meanwhile, according to the most recently published federal price data, Americans are paying more than $5 for a carton of eggs on average. And although USDA data shows wholesale egg prices dropping since the beginning of March, prices at the grocery store remain high, reflecting retailer concerns over fluctuating supply. According to interviews with U.S. government officials and trade experts and information provided by foreign agriculture agencies, there are significant differences in the composition of each country’s egg industry and the laws surrounding the production and marketing of eggs. Notably, both Canada and Mexico have active federal measures to control the price of eggs, while the United States does not. Since the 1970s, Canada has used protection measures to control its supply of eggs and the price of the commodity. In the face of high inflation, the Mexican government recently enacted price controls on key goods, including controls on the price of eggs. Mexico has dealt with outbreaks of various strains of highly pathogenic bird flu since the 1990s. However, it utilizes vaccines to combat the disease rather than culling large numbers of birds. U.S.-based sources told The Epoch Times the country also has lower sanitary standards for eggs. Canada’s supply-controlled agricultural economy and far lower national population allow Canadian farmers to operate much smaller egg farms than their American counterparts. Smaller poultry barns prevent large-scale bird losses if the disease is detected and a cull is necessary. Read the full report: https://lnkd.in/eyeYtkm5

Redactions are common in the JFK files, and though President Trump ordered these released in full, intelligence agencies submitted heavily censored documents like this years ago to the archives, which they describe as "sanitized." We have requested full disclosure, and the National Archives is asking the CIA and FBI for unredacted originals. Release of JFK Files Marred by Redactions, Exemptions https://lnkd.in/gBidP-6G

WASHINGTON—The pressure is mounting for Republicans in Congress. They face a critical, high-stakes few weeks ahead as they work to resolve key challenges in advancing President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda. At the top of their list is making permanent the tax cuts enacted during the president’s first term. This promise was a cornerstone of Trump’s 2024 campaign, but bringing it to life comes with hurdles. The price tag is hefty, and Republicans in both the House of Representatives and the Senate remain divided on how to fund it, all while striving to keep the budget balanced. “We need Congress to pass the largest tax cuts in American history,” Trump said during remarks at a White House event on March 26. “We want one big, beautiful bill. Just put it all in that bill, and we'll figure out a way to have it passed.” To pass new tax cuts and advance Trump’s other agenda items, Republicans plan to use the budget reconciliation process, which will allow them to bypass the Senate 60-vote filibuster threshold and approve legislation with a simple majority vote. In February, the Senate and House passed separate budget resolutions for fiscal year 2025 to pave the way for reconciliation legislation. A budget resolution establishes overall levels of spending, revenue, the deficit or surplus, and public debt. Now, the two chambers must agree on a concurrent budget resolution to formally kick off the reconciliation process. However, one of the main hurdles they must address is whether Republicans can use the “current policy baseline” method to score the bill and make tax cuts permanent without adding to the deficit. Read the full story: https://lnkd.in/eRsvbZUJ

BREAKING: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announces mass layoffs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that will reduce the full-time HHS workforce by about *25 percent* from 82,000 workers. “We are going to streamline HHS to make our agency more efficient and more effective,” Kennedy said. The other goal is improving the quality of service. The reorganization, which will take 28 divisions down to 15, is expected to save $1.8 billion a year, health officials said. The division that will be most affected is the FDA, with about 3,500 workers being fired, according to HHS. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's workforce will be reduced by about 2,400 employees. Some 1,200 employees at The National Institutes of Health will no longer have jobs. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, another division, will move forward with about 300 fewer workers. Kennedy said the transition will be painful but that the department is “going to do more with less.”

The U.S. trade deficit reached a record high of more than $1.2 trillion in 2024. Automobiles and parts accounted for nearly a quarter of that. In a bid to reverse the trade imbalance, President Donald Trump in February introduced a plan to impose reciprocal tariffs to “level the playing field” on trade and address what his administration called unfair trade practices imposed by other countries. The tariffs are set to go into effect on April 2, after officials determine the individual tariff rate for each country. Trump has repeatedly highlighted the automobile industry as a potential sector for tariffs. Automakers in the United States have undergone a rollercoaster ride since Trump announced a universal 25 percent tariff on Canadian and Mexican imports in February. Ultimately, the auto industry obtained a one-month exemption after the big three automakers—Stellantis, Ford, and General Motors—spoke to Trump over the phone. However, this reprieve won’t shelter them from the impending reciprocal tariffs. When announcing the exemption, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president expected automakers to start moving production to the United States. “He told them that they should get on it, start investing, start moving, shift production here to the United States of America, where they will pay no tariff,” she said on March 5. “That’s the ultimate goal.” Read the full report: https://lnkd.in/e6ENYUj7