Saturday, July 11, 2026
Hunter Biden wins $1.7m in suit over Iran bribery claim by ex-CEO of Overstock.com | Hunter Biden | The Guardian
Hunter Biden wins $1.7m in suit over Iran bribery claim by ex-CEO of Overstock.com
"Biden sued Patrick Byrne for defamation over claim that he sought bribe to lobby his father to free $8bn in Iran assets
A federal judge on Friday awarded Hunter Biden $1.7m in punitive damages in a defamation lawsuit he filed against former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne.
Biden sued Byrne – a Donald Trump ally who denied the results of the 2020 electionand funded efforts to overturn them – in 2023, accusing Byrne of lying in an interview that Biden had previously sought a bribe from Iran’s government in the fall of 2021.
Joe Biden, Hunter’s father, was the US president at the time. And Byrne in an interview lied that Hunter Biden – in exchange for an $800m bribe – had offered Iran to go to his father, have him “unfreeze” $8bn in frozen Iranian assets and ensure that the US would “go easy” on Iran during “nuclear talks” between the two countries, according to Hunter Biden’s lawsuit.
Biden alleged in the complaint that Byrne “made, published, and repeated false and defamatory statements knowing full well that the statements are false, for the purpose of subjecting plaintiff to harassment, intimidation, and harm”.
In an order on Friday, the US district judge Stephen Wilson of California wrote that Byrne during the case had disputed that he made those statements with “actual malice”. And, Wilson wrote, Byrne had told the court that he believed the statements to be true because he had been told about the alleged bribery scheme by an Iranian government official.
But Wilson – who was appointed to the federal judiciary during Ronald Reagan’s presidency – wrote that Byrne did not allege that the Iranian official had claimed to have had any direct contact with Biden, did not provide any evidence supporting his claims, and failed to “provide to this court, throughout the course of litigation, any documentary evidence that could allow a reasonable person to believe the story to be true”.
The judge also said that over the course of the case, the court found “ample evidence” supporting a finding that Byrne “knew the story to be false, and much of the narrative describing the covert meeting with an Iranian government official was fabricated”.
The case had been scheduled for a jury trial in October. But the judge wrote on Friday that Byrne “failed to appear” for the proceeding and fired his lead trial attorney, delaying the proceedings “at the expense” of Biden and the court.
After his failure to appear at trial, Wilson found Byrne to be in default as a sanction for what the judge described as “repeated, intentional disobedience of court orders and unceasing efforts to delay proceedings”.
The judge on Friday wrote that “the evidence is clear and convincing that defendant has engaged in intentional misrepresentation with conscious disregard towards plaintiff’s rights” – and he awarded Biden $1 in nominal damages along with $1.7m in punitive damages.
Wilson also ordered Byrne to pay Biden about $35,000 in court sanctions.
In a statement to the Guardian on Saturday, an attorney for Biden, Bryan Sullivan, said Byrne had effectively accused his client of “treason” – and now a judge had “found that every one of those claims was fabricated”.
“The judgment is $1.7m in punitive damages, and it is the floor, not the ceiling, of what Mr Byrne owes for his conduct,” Sullivan added. “If Mr Byrne chooses to repeat any of it, we will be back in court.”
Attorneys listed as representing Byrne did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Guardian on Saturday morning.
The ruling in Hunter Biden’s favor on Friday comes at a time when he has been building an online following through social media posts covering topics such as politics, mental health and addiction recovery. He also announced that he will be publishing a series of essays on the Substack platform.
It also comes after his father, in the waning days of his presidency, issued him a pardon for convictions on federal gun and tax charges."
Times Journalists Subpoenaed as Trump Escalates Pressure on Media - The New York Times
Times Journalists Subpoenaed as Trump Escalates Pressure on Media
"The Justice Department is seeking to compel testimony from reporters who wrote about the new Air Force One. The Times called the move a “brazen act.”
The Trump administration issued subpoenas on Friday to several journalists for The New York Times, after the news outlet reported this week on security concerns involving President Trump’s new Qatari-donated Air Force One.
The subpoenas — which seek to force the reporters to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan on Wednesday — were an extraordinary escalation in President Trump’s efforts to threaten and intimidate independent news organizations.
In some cases, the subpoenas were delivered by federal agents who showed up at reporters’ homes.
The Times denounced the administration’s actions.
“The appearance of federal law enforcement agents on the doorstep of news reporters should shock the conscience of any American who believes in the Constitution and the press freedom it protects,” said David McCraw, The Times’s top newsroom lawyer, in a statement on Friday evening.
“Our journalists report the facts and advance the American public’s right to know how their government is operating and their taxpayer dollars are being used,” Mr. McCraw wrote. “This brazen act should be seen as nothing more than an attempt to prevent the public from knowing what is happening in their country by intimidating journalists from doing their jobs.”
The subpoenas contain few specifics, asking only that the journalists testify “in regard to an alleged violation of federal criminal law.” They were issued by Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan. Mr. Clayton, who leads one of the country’s most prominent law enforcement offices, was recently nominated by Mr. Trump to serve as director of national intelligence.
Representatives for the White House did not respond to inquiries on Friday evening.
In a statement on Saturday, a Justice Department spokeswoman said that “reporters are not the targets, those leaking classified information are.”
“We value and appreciate the important role that the press plays in this country, but D.O.J. also plays an important role to make sure that the people entrusted with our nation’s secrets do what they’re supposed to do with that information,” said the spokeswoman, Emily Covington. She added, “We recognize there may always be natural tension there, but we are not going to ignore the law.”
The Times journalists who received subpoenas included Julian E. Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager and Eric Schmitt, who reported on Wednesday that Mr. Trump had departed Turkey on the old Air Force One as a security precaution at the urging of the Secret Service. On Thursday, The Times reported that the new Air Force One, a Qatari-donated Boeing 747-8, lacked some of the advanced security features of the older aircraft, including antimissile capabilities. Both articles cited sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security issues.
Before the Wednesday article was published, a senior official at the Federal Bureau of Investigation contacted a reporter and a senior editor at The Times to ask that the article be held, calling it an issue of national security, according to a person familiar with the conversation. The F.B.I. official declined to explain the security issue. The official also asked The Times to disclose its sources for the article; the newspaper refused to do so. (A spokesman for The Times, Charlie Stadtlander, confirmed the account.)
Mr. Trump has long been a harsh critic of the news media. But in his second term in office, he has moved aggressively to use the immense powers of the federal government in his efforts to attack the press.
Earlier this year, the Justice Department sought to compel testimony from journalists at The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. The Justice Department withdrew the subpoenas after both news organizations fought back in sealed filings.
Both Democratic and Republican administrations have initiated leak investigations into the disclosure of classified information. But subpoenas aimed at journalists are not common, and First Amendment advocates say they can chill the work of news gathering.
In January, F.B.I. agents took the rare step of searching the home of a Washington Post reporter, Hannah Natanson, as part of an investigation into a government contractor’s handling of classified material. The agents seized phones, laptops and a smartwatch after executing a search warrant. Ms. Natanson had spent months speaking with government employees while reporting on the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the federal work force.
The Times is a party to several lawsuits involving Mr. Trump and his administration.
The president sued The Times last year, accusing it of defaming him, disparaging his reputation and seeking to undermine his 2024 candidacy.
In December, The Times sued the Defense Department after it imposed restrictions on reporters who cover the military. The company sued again after the agency reduced reporters’ physical access to the Pentagon.
In May, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued The Times, accusing it of employment discrimination. On Friday, The Times filed a counterclaim, saying the lawsuit was an act of retaliation for its coverage of the Trump presidency and a violation of its First Amendment rights.
Glenn Thrush and Benjamin Weiser contributed reporting.
Michael M. Grynbaum writes about the intersection of media, politics and culture. He has been a media correspondent at The Times since 2016.
A version of this article appears in print on July 12, 2026, Section A, Page 19 of the New York edition with the headline: Times Reporters Subpoenaed as Trump Escalates Pressure on the Media."
Donald Trump ousts election commission members in latest push to reshape US voting process – WABE
Donald Trump ousts election commission members in latest push to reshape US voting process
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in flight on Air Force One after landing at U.S. Air Force Base at RAF Mildenhall, in Suffolk, Eastern England, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
"President Donald Trump has ousted members of a bipartisan federal election commission that resisted his efforts to require would-be voters to document their U.S. citizenship before registering.
The White House on Friday confirmed the executive action against members of the Election Assistance Commission, which distributes federal grants to states, oversees the testing of voting systems and maintains the national voter registration forms.
It’s the latest move in the Republican president’s effort to expand White House influence over how U.S. elections are conducted and comes after a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gave the president new personnel authority to fire members of independent agency boards.
“The President, and head of the Executive Branch, reserves the right to remove individuals that may not be totally aligned with the important task of securing America’s elections and ensuring every legal vote is counted. The Slaughter decision gives the President precedence to do so,” said a White House statement to AP.
The president removed the commission’s two Democratic members, Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland. The panel’s Republican member, Christy McCormick resigned. Former Republican commissioner Donald Palmer already had left his post voluntarily earlier this year.
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The changes were first reported by VoteBeat, a news outlet that covers elections and voting across the U.S.
While the White House statement did not offer a specific reason for Trump’s action, the commission has previously declined to change the national voter registration form to require documentation of an applicant’s U.S. citizenship, as Trump’s urged in a sweeping March 2025 executive order on U.S. elections. A federal judge blocked the order, ruling it exceeds the president’s authority since the U.S. Constitution grants authority over elections management and oversight to Congress and the states. The administration has indicated it will appeal.
It was not clear whether Trump planned to nominate new members immediately or leave the positions vacant — a move that, months ahead of midterm elections, could prevent the agency from distributing new grants to state or local elections offices and, at the least, complicate its role in overseeing testing and certification of voting systems around the country.
“The Administration from the start has been working across all agencies and local partners to safeguard elections from fraud and abuse, and investing in a strong infrastructure to sustain that mission especially in the midterm elections,” the White House said.
Congress created the four-member commission as part of the Help America Vote Act, a bipartisan law signed by Republican President George W. Bush in 2002. The act requires the commission to include two Democrats and two Republicans, nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Hicks and McCormick were appointed by President Barack Obama. Trump appointed Hovland during his first presidency.
According to VoteBeat, Hicks and Hovland were notified of their removal by an email signed by Morgan DeWitt Snow, the deputy director of presidential personnel in the Executive Office of the President."
How Marco Rubio Is Running Venezuela From Afar - The New York Times
How Marco Rubio Is Running Venezuela From Afar
"The secretary of state effectively controls Venezuela’s finances, the distribution of its natural resources and its government. His grip on the country is a vivid manifestation of American power in the Trump era.
President Trump was sitting in the Oval Office earlier this year with Secretary of State Marco Rubio when an idea came to him.
Maybe he should dispatch Mr. Rubio permanently to Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, where U.S. commandos had carried out the proudest foreign policy achievement of Mr. Trump’s second term: the capture of Nicolás Maduro, the country’s president.
Mr. Rubio could be the next leader of Venezuela, Mr. Trump suggested. And while the president’s aides say he was joking — and that he frequently teases Mr. Rubio about an overseas assignment — the fact is that Mr. Rubio does not need to move to Caracas.
He already runs Venezuela from Washington.
In the six months since U.S. forces blew open Mr. Maduro’s bedroom door and snatched him in the dead of night, Mr. Rubio has become the de facto viceroy of Venezuela, holding sway over a sovereign nation in a way that no American official has since L. Paul Bremer III arrived in Baghdad in 2003 to run U.S.-occupied Iraq.
Mr. Rubio now effectively controls Venezuela’s finances, the distribution of its natural resources and its government, according to interviews with more than a dozen officials and people close to both governments in Washington and Caracas, who provided details about his involvement in steering the country’s policies. Many spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private interactions and internal discussions.
While he has not visited Venezuela in person since the U.S. took over, the secretary of state is deeply involved in the country’s day-to-day operations, keeping in close contact with Delcy RodrÃguez, who was Mr. Maduro’s vice president and now leads her country on an acting basis, with the imprimatur of the United States. The two exchange messages in Spanish on WhatsApp, trading gossip, birthday greetings and selfies.
Despite the banter, the relationship between Mr. Rubio and Ms. RodrÃguez is far from a partnership. It is a manifestation of Trump-era American power, in which the winner takes all regardless of sovereignty and international law.
The Venezuelan government did not respond to a request for comment. The Trump administration did not address detailed questions about Mr. Rubio’s authority in Venezuela. Mr. Rubio has downplayed his role, and largely avoids discussing his work. He declined multiple requests for an interview.
Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesman, said in a statement that “with renewed cooperation and sound economic stewardship, Venezuela can re-emerge as a stable, prosperous partner whose citizens benefit from its vast natural wealth and strengthened ties with the United States.”
The direct control over Venezuela’s public revenues, in particular, distinguishes Washington’s influence there from most other countries beholden to its military and financial might.
The U.S. Treasury receives the revenue from most of Venezuela’s exports, then disburses it gradually to Venezuela through the country’s private banks, a relationship akin to parents handing out allowances to children. Mr. Rubio and his team set the conditions on what that money can be spent on, and by whom.
This system has allowed Mr. Rubio to stop Venezuela’s most egregious corruption schemes. And it brings some benefits to the Venezuelan government, which uses the effective protection of the U.S. Treasury to receive revenues without being hounded by the numerous creditors seeking repayment of billions in unpaid debt.
But the arrangement has also given Mr. Rubio immense leverage over Ms. RodrÃguez, who depends on the money to pay workers and prop up the national currency.
He also oversees the application of U.S. sanctions on Venezuela, deciding who gets to do business in the country and how. He has worked to reshape the oil sector and boosted the access of U.S. companies. For her part, Ms. RodrÃguez runs important government appointments by him, such as the minister of defense.
Since two earthquakes struck Venezuela last month, Mr. Rubio has sought to bolster the country’s interim government. The United States has sent 900 military personnel to Venezuela, committed nearly $400 million in aid and delivered crates of cash to the Venezuelan government.
The earthquakes have complicated Mr. Rubio’s stated mission to return Venezuela to democracy (“It’s a setback in that regard,” Mr. Rubio acknowledged last month). But the country’s ability to recover is critical to Mr. Trump’s ultimate goal: securing Venezuelan oil for U.S. interests.
The arrangement is deeply unusual, unfolding 80 years after the United States relinquished its last sizable formal colony, the Philippines.
But Mr. Trump has made clear he wants to return to an era of American expansionism, musing about taking control of Greenland, Canada and the Panama Canal.
He has found the most success in Venezuela. But there are risks.
Mr. Trump’s critics accuse the United States of siphoning Venezuela’s resources and propping up an authoritarian government by leaving Mr. Maduro’s henchmen largely in place. The arrangement also entangles the United States in the fortunes of a deeply unpopular, unelected regime facing increasingly restless clamor for political change.
“Secretary Rubio said that we are not at war with Venezuela,” Representative Sean Casten, Democrat of Illinois, said to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during a congressional hearing in February. What authority, Mr. Casten asked, did the United States have to control Venezuelan assets?
Mr. Bessent told Mr. Casten that he would get back to him.
Mr. Rubio’s hard-nosed realpolitik in Venezuela is a sharp departure for a man who spent his career fashioning himself as a champion for democracy in Latin America. He has said his goal is an eventual democratic transition.
The outcome of the Venezuela foray could shape Mr. Rubio’s political future as Mr. Trump considers his successor.
‘Make Venezuela Great Again’
In the early hours of Jan. 3, shortly after Mr. Maduro was captured, Mr. Rubio reached Ms. RodrÃguez by phone. Speaking in Spanish, Mr. Rubio told her that she had a choice between working with the United States or witnessing a broader attack targeting Venezuela’s infrastructure, military bases and senior officials.
After some negotiation, Ms. RodrÃguez agreed.
She told Mr. Rubio that “she’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again,” according to Mr. Trump. The president said the United States would “run the country” until there was a “safe, proper and judicious transition” of power.
Days later, Mr. Trump told The New York Times in an interview that he expected the United States to run Venezuela for years.
At the center of the fulcrum is Mr. Rubio, dubbed by other officials as “viceroy,” the title given to the powerful governors who ruled the Spanish empire until Venezuela and most of its other provinces rebelled and won independence in the early 19th century.
As Ms. RodrÃguez started to set up her government, Mr. Rubio weighed in on key personnel decisions, and encouraged her to purge Mr. Maduro’s family and business partners. She followed through.
Most Venezuelans expressed relief at Mr. Maduro’s downfall only to watch in disbeliefas the Trump administration struck an alliance with most of his chief enforcers. Inflation has fallen but remains the world’s highest, and the country’s currency keeps losing value. Millions are clamoring for new elections, putting pressure on Mr. Rubio to move beyond economic deals and bring political change. Investors are nervous about putting capital into a system that could crumble at any moment.
Before the earthquakes, Ms. RodrÃguez had been asking Mr. Rubio for more financial autonomy and the scrapping of economic sanctions, to reduce the domestic pressure on her government.
Mr. Rubio has been sympathetic to her arguments, but the U.S. government has not released control.
Mr. Rubio’s work with Ms. RodrÃguez has provoked grumbling among some career U.S. diplomats, Venezuelan Americans and Mr. Trump’s allies, who bristle at the idea that Mr. Maduro’s chief lieutenant is in power.
Mr. Rubio and other officials have dismissed those concerns, pointing to how Ms. RodrÃguez has followed nearly every order the administration has made, especially those related to the country’s finances. Venezuela sells much of its oil through two oil trading companies, Trafigura and Vitol, in an arrangement set up by the Trump administration.
Mr. Rubio has largely eclipsed Chris Wright, the energy secretary, in opening up Venezuela’s oil industry to foreign investment, the cornerstone of Mr. Trump’s vision for the country. He has prioritized the arrival of new American companies at the expense of European oil producers who were already working in the country.
Ben Dietderich, a spokesman for Mr. Wright, said the secretary has worked closely with Mr. Rubio, and has spoken regularly with energy industry leaders and Ms. RodrÃguez.
Washington’s grip on Venezuela’s economy extends beyond the oil revenues. Mr. Rubio’s team drafts the licenses that provide companies who want to do business in Venezuela with exemptions from sanctions. Mr. Rubio has warned Ms. RodrÃguez’s government to abstain from business with U.S. adversaries. Following Mr. Maduro’s downfall, for example, Venezuela’s state oil company has quietly taken over the operations of the oil projects that it co-owns with Russia’s state-run Rosneft. Rosneft did not respond to request for comment.
The Trump administration has also successfully pressured Ms. RodrÃguez to turn over Venezuelans who have crossed the Justice Department. At the behest of the United States, Ms. RodrÃguez’s government in February detained Alex Saab, the billionaire friend and business partner of Mr. Maduro, and approved his extradition to the United States, after stripping him of his Venezuelan passport.
Some officials believe the Justice Department wants to use Mr. Saab to strengthen the case against Mr. Maduro, who has been charged with various drug trafficking crimes.
And in June, the RodrÃguez government helped the United States kill a criminal boss with longstanding ties to Venezuelan officials, according to several people familiar with the operation.
U.S. forces used the intelligence provided by Ms. RodrÃguez’s officials to kill Niño Guerrero, one of the leaders of the gang Tren de Aragua, in a missile strike in a remote area of southern Venezuela. It was the first military collaboration between the two countries in decades. The Venezuelan government later recovered the gang leader’s body and passed it to the United States.
The Trump administration has accused Tren de Aragua of working with Mr. Maduro to flood the United States with drugs and illegal migrants, even though U.S. intelligence agencies last year assessed that Mr. Maduro did not control the gang.
The Trump administration even exerts control over Ms. RodrÃguez’s public appearances and statements. In May, Mr. Rubio announced that Ms. RodrÃguez would travel to India before the Venezuelan government mentioned it, surprising Venezuelan officials and foreign diplomats.
When the Fox News anchor Bret Baier contacted Ms. RodrÃguez about participating in an interview, she told him that Mr. Trump would have to approve. Mr. Trump loved that Ms. RodrÃguez was deferring to him, and has repeatedly recounted the story to others when they ask about her, according to multiple people familiar with his comments.
When the United States attacked Iran, Yvan Gil, Venezuela’s foreign minister, issued a soft condemnation of the aggression against Venezuela’s longtime ally.
The Trump administration communicated to Ms. RodrÃguez that the post should be taken down, and warned her not to publicly support its adversaries again. Mr. Gil deleted the post hours after posting it.
In effect, it was an admission that Venezuela no longer set its foreign policy.
Mr. Gil did not respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Rubio was asleep in Bahrain last month when he was awakened by a call from the White House Situation Room. Two massive earthquakes had hit Venezuela, and early images were grim. Entire neighborhoods were flattened, and scores of people were missing.
Shortly after, Mr. Rubio spoke to Ms. RodrÃguez, promising the full assistance of the United States. American rescue teams were on the ground two days later. Mr. Rubio has described the administration’s plans for Venezuela in three phases: recover the economy, stabilize the country and transition it to democracy.
Before the earthquakes, U.S. officials said they were in the second phase, working to open up Venezuela to international investment. To further that goal, senior Trump administration officials have traveled to Venezuela to meet their counterparts and strike new energy and mining deals.
The resulting announcements, however, have mostly been optimistic outlines of potential investments.
In March, Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, visited Venezuela and met with Ms. RodrÃguez at the Presidential Palace. During the visit, Mr. Rubio texted her to ask how the meeting was going. Ms. RodrÃguez said it was going well, and sent a selfie with Mr. Burgum.
But the meeting was overshadowed by damaging news. Reuters reported that day that the Justice Department was quietly building a legal case against Ms. RodrÃguez.
Ms. RodrÃguez’s administration was shocked, and sought clarification from the White House. To allay Ms. RodrÃguez’s concerns, Todd Blanche, then the deputy attorney general, called the report “completely FALSE.”
But the Venezuelan government sought further assurances. So the next day Mr. Rubio texted Mr. RodrÃguez the link to a social media post from the U.S. president.
“Delcy RodrÃguez, who is the President of Venezuela, is doing a great job, and working with U.S. Representatives very well,” Mr. Trump wrote. Ms. RodrÃguez was pleased, and wanted to thank Mr. Trump with a post of her own. But first, she shared the draft with Mr. Rubio. She posted it after receiving his approval.
Before Mr. Maduro’s capture, U.S. prosecutors had been looking into many Venezuelan officials, including Ms. RodrÃguez, though it is unclear if those efforts have revealed evidence of crimes. The Associated Press reported in May that the Trump administration told prosecutors to stop investigating Ms. RodrÃguez.
The success of the efforts to bring stability to Venezuela, the second phase of Mr. Rubio’s plan, largely hinges on foreign investment. But investors are cautious. The oil sector is degraded and corrupt, and Ms. RodrÃguez’s grip on power in uncertain. The earthquakes have delayed the negotiations for new oil contracts.
Mr. Trump appears unworried. He has repeatedly suggested that Venezuela could become the 51st state.
Who may lead the country on a more permanent basis is still deeply uncertain. MarÃa Corina Machado, the exiled opposition leader, remains the country’s most popular politician. But she has sworn enemies among Venezuela’s security and military officials, leading Mr. Rubio to bypass her and settle on Ms. RodrÃguez as the country’s handpicked leader.
Once a staunch supporter of Ms. Machado, Mr. Rubio has distanced himself from her in recent months. The cooling relationship between the Trump administration and Ms. Machado became an open breach after the earthquakes. U.S. officials have refused to help her return to Venezuela out of fear of stoking unrest.
The time frame for the final phase of Mr. Rubio’s Venezuela plan, the free elections, remains undefined. When The Times asked Ms. RodrÃguez in May when she would hold elections, she said, “I don’t know. Sometime.”
Political analysts say that Ms. RodrÃguez may be trying to run out the clock on the Trump presidency, hoping that the pressure to hold the vote would fade under his successor.
For now, the question of when an election would be held is not in her hands. It is in Mr. Rubio’s.
Eric Schmitt and Alan Feuer contributed reporting.
Tyler Pager is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration."
Friday, July 10, 2026
One million women lost access to humanitarian support in past 18 months, UN report says | United Nations | The Guardian
One million women lost access to humanitarian support in past 18 months, UN report says
"‘Organizations that have kept women and girls alive through the world’s worst crises risk becoming another casualty of war’ a UN Women chief says
At least one million women and girls have lost access to humanitarian and other critical support over the past 18 months, according to a United Nations agency, after “the steepest annual decline” in foreign aid on record.
The report by UN Women, which focuses on advancing women’s rights, gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, found 84% of women’s organizations reported increased demand for their services since January 2025. That month, Donald Trump re-entered the White House and implemented sweeping cuts to US foreign aid.
According to the report, nearly nine in 10 organizations reported that they can no longer meet the current levels of need, and two in five organizations surveyed said they expect to shut down, either temporarily or permanently, within the next year.
The report is based on responses from 855 women-led and women’s rights organizations across 52 crisis- and conflict-affected countries.
“The women’s organizations at risk of being shut down are on the frontlines of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises,” said Sofia Calltorp, the chief of humanitarian action at UN Women. “In countries including Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Haiti, they operate where international actors cannot and stay long after global attention has moved on.
“Every dollar withdrawn from women’s organizations is a dollar withdrawn from survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, displaced mothers, girls forced from school and communities struggling to survive.”
The report comes as humanitarian agencies worldwide continue to grapple with deep funding reductions. Over the last year and a half, many UN agencies have cut staff, reduced budgets and scaled back operations after drastic funding cuts in foreign aid assistance from the US, as well as reductions in foreign aid from other international donors including the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
Recent data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), cited in the report, found there had been a “historic decline in foreign aid” between 2024 and 2025. According to the OECD, the US alone drove three-quarters of the decline” with US foreign assistance falling by more than 50% in 2025 “compared to 2024”.
Since returning to office in 2025, the Trump administration has cut billions in US foreign aid and dismantled the US Agency for International Development (USAID). In May, the Associated Press reported that US support for UN humanitarian programs was currently at $3.8bn across 21 countries, which the outlet described as a “fraction of what the US has contributed in the past”.
In a statement to the Guardian, a senior White House administration official said that “the United States provides more foreign aid than any country in the world” and that “we’re going to do more than anyone in the world again this year, but we’re going to do it the right way: holistically and as part of an integrated foreign policy.”
Asked about the UN report and OECD data showing the US share in global decline in foreign aid, a senior Trump administration official described it as a “ridiculous insinuation”.
Foreign assistance is to be “delivered with more accountability, strategy and efficiency”, the official added. “It is imperative to remember that the American taxpayer was never meant to bear the full burden of taking care of every person on Earth – whether that be with food, medicine or otherwise.”
In the news release for the UN Women report on Friday, the agency said that the consequences of recent global funding cuts are “already visible”, noting that “half of women’s organizations have introduced waiting lists or are turning away women and girls in need.”
The report also found that 92% of organizations have seen rising levels of poverty among the women they serve, while 82% reported seeing more girls dropping out of school. In addition, the report warned that conflict-related sexual violence doubled in 2025, “just as the systems designed to protect survivors are collapsing”.
In their news release, UN Women called for “sustained investment in women’s organizations as indispensable first responders, defenders of women’s rights, and the foundation of peace and recovery”.
“Without immediate action, the organizations that have kept women and girls alive through the world’s worst crises risk becoming another casualty of war,” Calltorp said."
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