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Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s resolution to freeze overseas help over the weekend included pulling hundreds of thousands of dollars-worth of U.S. funding for “condoms in Gaza,” a White Home official instructed Fox Information Digital.
The revelation got here because the official defined {that a} separate memo from the Workplace of Administration and Finances will briefly pause grants, loans and federal help packages pending a evaluation into whether or not the funding coincides with President Donald Trump’s govt orders, resembling these associated to ending range, fairness and inclusion (DEI), the Inexperienced New Deal, and funding nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) “that undermine the nationwide curiosity.”
“If the exercise just isn’t in battle with the President’s priorities, it’s going to proceed with no points,” the White Home official instructed Fox Information Digital. “That is just like how HHS [Department of Health and Human Services] stopped the move of grant cash to the WHO [World Health Organization] after President Trump introduced the U.S. withdrawal from the group. Or how the State Division halted a number of million {dollars} going to condoms in Gaza this previous weekend.”
RUBIO PAUSES FOREIGN AID FROM STATE DEPARTMENT AND USAID TO ENSURE IT PUTS ‘AMERICA FIRST’
Palestinians connect an incendiary gadget to inflated plastic baggage and condoms to be directed and flown in direction of Israel, close to Rafah alongside the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel on Aug. 21, 2020. (SAID KHATIB/AFP by way of Getty Photographs)
Fox Information Digital reached out to the State Division on Tuesday looking for further data.
In her first-ever briefing Tuesday, White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt mentioned that the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) and the OBM discovered “that there was about to be $50 million taxpayer {dollars} that went out the door to fund condoms in Gaza.”
“That could be a preposterous waste of taxpayer cash. So that is what this pause is concentrated on, being good stewards of tax {dollars},” Leavitt instructed reporters. She mentioned DOGE and OBM additionally discovered $37 million was about to be despatched to the WHO earlier than Trump’s govt order breaking ties with the worldwide well being physique.
The Jerusalem Submit reported in 2020 that scores of condoms have been getting used to create IED-carrying balloons that winds would carry into southern Israel, elevating alarm on schoolyards, farmlands and highways.
On the time, the Submit reported that the improvised explosive gadgets – floated into Israel by way of inflated contraceptives – burned hundreds of hectares of land and brought on “hundreds of thousands of shekels of harm.” It isn’t clear if the observe continues.
Simply two days after the Oct. 7, 2023, assaults, which concerned Hamas terrorists brutally raping among the roughly 1,200 folks killed in southern Israel and a whole lot of others introduced again into Gaza as hostages, a world NGO often known as the Worldwide Deliberate Parenthood Federation (IPPF) launched a press release concerning the ensuing warfare and escalating violence.
The NGO claimed that any blockade of help shipments into Gaza would infringe on their “huge beneficial properties made in life-saving sexual and reproductive healthcare on this area.”
“Palestinians are systematically denied sexual and reproductive healthcare and rights,” the chief director of a corresponding NGO, the Palestinian Household Planning and Safety Affiliation (PFPPA), mentioned on the time. “Our well being system has been repeatedly focused and depleted by the Israeli occupation, and the extra it disintegrates, the extra it’s going to hinder the total realization of those rights for ladies and ladies.”
On Sunday, Rubio paused all U.S. overseas help funded by or by the State Division and U.S. Company for Worldwide Improvement (USAID) for evaluation.
Palestinians put together incendiary gadgets earlier than being connected to inflated condoms and plastic baggage, to be directed and flown in direction of Israel, close to Rafah alongside the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel on Aug. 21, 2020. (SAID KHATIB/AFP by way of Getty Photographs)
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The transfer got here in response to Trump’s govt order, “Reevaluating and Realigning United States International Support,” issued final week directing a sweeping 90-day pause on most U.S. overseas help disbursed by the State Division.
The State Division mentioned Sunday that Rubio was initiating a evaluation of “all overseas help packages to make sure they’re environment friendly and according to U.S. overseas coverage below the America First agenda.”
“President Trump said clearly that the USA is now not going to blindly dole out cash with no return for the American folks. Reviewing and realigning overseas help on behalf of hardworking taxpayers isn’t just the best factor to do, it’s a ethical crucial. The Secretary is proud to guard America’s funding with a deliberate and even handed evaluation of how we spend overseas help {dollars} abroad,” a State Division spokesperson mentioned Sunday.
“The mandate from the American folks was clear – we should refocus on American nationwide pursuits,” the assertion added. “The Division and USAID take their function as stewards of taxpayer {dollars} very critically. The implementation of this Govt Order and the Secretary’s route furthers that mission. As Secretary of State Marco Rubio has mentioned, ‘Each greenback we spend, each program we fund, and each coverage we pursue should be justified with the reply to 3 easy questions: Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America extra affluent?’”
The wind propels refrigerant gas-filled condoms connected to incendiary gadgets into Israeli territory after being launched by a bunch of masked Palestinians close to the Israel-Gaza border. (Mohammed Talatene/image alliance by way of Getty Photographs)
Rubio had particularly exempted solely emergency meals packages and navy help to Israel and Egypt from the freeze on overseas help.
On Monday, at the least 56 senior USAID officers have been positioned on depart pending an investigation into alleged efforts to thwart Trump’s orders, the Related Press reported, citing a present official and a former official at USAID.
An inner USAID discover despatched late Monday and obtained by the AP mentioned new appearing administrator Jason Grey had recognized “a number of actions inside USAID that look like designed to bypass the President’s Govt Orders and the mandate from the American folks.” “In consequence, we’ve positioned plenty of USAID staff on administrative depart with full pay and advantages till additional discover whereas we full our evaluation of those actions,” Grey wrote.
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The senior company officers placed on depart have been skilled staff who had served in a number of administrations, together with Trump’s, the previous USAID official mentioned.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
Danielle Wallace is a breaking information and politics reporter at Fox Information Digital. Story ideas could be despatched to danielle.wallace@fox.com and on X: @danimwallace.
