The Dictatorship

Trump’s USAID cuts are having a devastating impact on the ‘rape capital of the world’

Published

12 months ago

July 12, 2025

Trump’s USAID cuts are having a devastating impact on the ‘rape capital of the world’

She was 17.

After armed men attacked her village in eastern Congo and raped her, she fled into the night — bloodied and alone. By morning, in late January, she reached a clinic on the outskirts of Goma.

The nurse knew exactly what she needed: a post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) kit — a small box of medication that can prevent HIV, sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy if given within 72 hours.

“She arrived within the window,” said a local social worker in Goma, who followed the case closely and spoke to me by phone. I’ll call her Grace. “But the kit wasn’t there.”

We can blame Washington, where Elon Musk-appointed disruptors locked out USAID staff and began dismantling the 61-year-old agency.

“We’re sorry,” the nurse told her. “We have nothing.”

Three months later, after a desperate, unsafe attempt to end her pregnancy, Grace died. We shouldn’t consider her direct cause of death the assault, but rather her despair that there was no care for her after her assault.

We can blame Washington, where Elon Musk-appointed disruptors locked out U.S. Agency for International Development staff and began dismantling the 61-year-old agency that once dominated PEP kit supply in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Dr. Esther Kitambala of Heal Africa — a Goma-based hospital on the front lines of the crisis — told me over the phone that more than 80% of those kits previously came from USAID.

At the beginning of this month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio put the finishing touches on the process Musk began in January when he declared USAID “beyond repair” and “a criminal organization.”

On June 30, NBC News reported on an analysis of USAID cuts published in the medical journal The Lancet that found:

From 2001 through 2021, USAID-funded programs prevented nearly 92 million deaths across 133 countries, including more than 25 million deaths from HIV/AIDS, around 11 million from diarrheal diseases, 8 million from malaria and nearly 5 million from tuberculosis.

Ending USAID could lead to the deaths of 14 million people over the next five yearsthe analysis predicts.

The day after that news story, Rubio, in a press release headlined “Make Foreign Aid Great Again,” said, “As of July 1st, USAID will officially cease to implement foreign assistance,” in part because “the countries that benefit the most from our generosity usually fail to reciprocate. For example, in 2023, sub-Saharan African nations voted with the United States only 29 percent of the time on essential resolutions at the UN.”

Humanitarian aid shouldn’t be pay to play.

At Heal Africaone of Goma’s few hospitals offering full support to rape survivors, the shelves once stocked with PEP kits now sit bare. Women and girls are turned away.

Her voice trembled as she described the anguish of turning away survivors in urgent need.

Kitambala, who leads reproductive health at Heal Africa, said the phrase she dreads most is now routine: “I’m sorry. We don’t have a PEP kit.” Her voice trembled over the phone as she described the anguish of turning away survivors in urgent need.

She spoke of a 3-year-old girl who’d been subjected to brutal sexual violence and a young woman, raped and pregnant, who went to her village clinic only to be turned away.

“When we receive rape victims like her, we call everywhere,” Kitambala said. “Every clinic I know. But the answer is always the same: ‘We ran out of PEP kits months ago.’”

I knew exactly what those kits meant. As a journalist, I reported from war zones like Goma. More recently, I led global media and public relations for Corus International, a humanitarian organization active in Goma and across 30 countries with fragile health systems.

A practitioner in Goma who asked to remain anonymous told me, “Survivors come clinging to hope that they’ll at least be protected from HIV. But when we turn them away … we send them back into the dark with nothing.”

“But their stories don’t end there,” that doctor said. “I see the face of that 12-year-old rape victim I had to turn away today. I think about the trauma she’s already endured — and the unimaginable challenges still ahead for her.”

Empowered by U.S. funding, facilities such as Heal Africa provided critical, compassionate care for survivors of sexual violence. The program’s success was striking — United Nations data indicates annual HIV/AIDS deaths in the DRC have fallen from 200,000 to roughly 14,000.

Then came Donald Trump and Elon Musk and Marco Rubio.

In multiple capacities across my professional career, I’ve walked through overcrowded camps filled with people carrying the weight of unspeakable loss. But what’s unfolding in Goma is unlike anything I’ve ever seen.

This is how America’s exit played out in a place long labeled the ‘rape capital of the world.’

Over 500,000 people are crammed into makeshift shelters. Children are dying of preventable disease. Health workers are exhausted and being forced to explain that even the most basic supplies, supplies once funded by about 1% of the U.S. budgetare no longer coming.

As USAID collapsed, Rwanda-backed M23 rebels surged into eastern DRC. The fallout was immediate. UNICEF reported a fivefold spike in rape cases in one week alone — children made up 30% of victims.

Back in early July, the United Nations Population Fund shared a document with Reuters revealing that only seven out of 34 health zones in North Kivu currently have even a minimal supply of post-rape kits. Fewer than 1 in 4 survivors are receiving the care they need, and shockingly, just 13% of those seeking help are receiving HIV-prevention medication within the critical 72-hour window.

This is how America’s exit played out in a place long labeled the “rape capital of the world,” where — even in relative calm — up to 80% of women and girls as young as 8 have endured sexual violence, according to front-line clinicians.

It didn’t have to happen this way. A working system existed that meant the difference between life and death. And Congress should either restore USAID or establish a replacement that reflects the generosity of the American people and not the inhumane agenda of one man and his administration.

Rubio says aid from the U.S. will now serve “American interests,” but what American interests are served by withholding a box of pills and letting a 17-year-old girl die alone in a displacement camp?

I’ve seen American power up close — not in tanks or embassies, but in quiet acts of courage:

A winter blanket handed to a shivering child in Ukraine. A solar panel powering a maternity ward in South Sudan. And in Goma, a PEP kit handed to a terrified teenager who still had a chance.

That girl is gone now. As is the system that could have saved her.

Muhammad Tahir

Muhammad Tahir is a nonresident senior fellow at The Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. He previously held key roles at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) in Washington, D.C., and Eastern Europe and served as bureau chief for IHA, the Turkish media, in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Most recently, he led media strategy at the nonprofit Corus International. His work has been published by BLN, BBC, Al Jazeera, The Washington Post and The New Atlanticist, among others.

The Dictatorship

8 convicted in Texas immigration center shooting sentenced to decades in prison

Published

1 hour ago

June 24, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

8 convicted in Texas immigration center shooting sentenced to decades in prison

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Eight protesters accused by the Justice Department of having ties to antifawere sentenced Tuesday to decades in federal prison over a shooting outside a Texas immigration detention center that wounded a police officer. Prosecutors have called the shooting an act of terrorism.

One of the defendants, a former U.S. Marine Corps reservist convicted of opening fire during the July 4 demonstration outside the Prairieland Detention Center near Dallas, was sentenced to 100 years in prison, the maximum punishment.

The lengthy sentences were condemned by family members and supporters in a news conference outside the federal courthouse in Fort Worth. Hope Song, whose son Benjamin Songreceived the heftiest sentence, disputed prosecutors’ claims that her son shot the officer and said he didn’t intend to hurt anyone.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, one of two judges overseeing the proceedings, said what happened wasn’t a protest but “an assault on democracy.”

“The need to deter this type of conduct is high,” O’Connor said.

The seven other protesters received prison terms ranging from 30 to 70 years.

Prosecutors said the eight are members of antifa, a decentralized anti-fascist organization and a targetof the Trump administration. Antifa is not a single organization but rather an umbrella term for far-left militant groups that confront or resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations.

President Donald Trump last fall signed an executive order designating antifa a domestic terrorist organization, even though there is no domestic equivalent to the State Department’s list of foreign terror organizations.

The defendants deny any affiliation with antifa and maintain they attended the demonstration in support of detained immigrants.

Prosecutor Frank Gatto urged the judge to impose stiff penalties.

“People with that kind of extremist beliefs need extra time in prison,” Gatto said. “They believe violence is justified.”

Phillip Hayes, Song’s attorney, said outside the courthouse that he takes issue with the idea that the protesters are extremists.

“This is a bunch of kids and young adults who really have a really big heart and really wanted their voice to be heard,” Hayes said. “It was never intended that anybody get hurt. It was never intended that any shots would be fired.”

Prosecutors said in court that Song had yelled “get to the rifles” and opened fire, striking a police officer who had just pulled up to the center.

Hayes argued that Song’s shots were “suppressive fire” and that a ricochet bullet hit the officer after he arrived on the scene and “aggressively” pulled out his firearm. He said his client will appeal the 100-year sentence.

“Song, aside from this day, has had an impeccable life. A former Marine. A good student,” Hayes said. “He had a lot of good qualities that were just ignored. The judge went ahead and gave as much as he could.”

Other defendants and their family members pleaded for leniency in court.

Autumn Hill said the gathering “seemed more like a party to me than anything else” and that she and others who participated “didn’t expect or want any violence or destruction of property to occur.”

Amber Lowrey told the judge that her sister, Savanna Batten, is a compassionate person with dreams of opening a bakery. She said Batten’s activism started with animal rights and evolved into anti-war and human rights advocacy.

“She’s the best person I know,” Lowrey said.

Hill and Batten both received 50-year sentences.

Other defendants previously pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorists rather than take their case to trial.

Critics warn the case could have a wide-reaching impact on protests given that organizations operating within the U.S. are supposed to be protected by First Amendment free-speech rights.

Last week, federal prosecutors charged 15 peoplewith impeding the Trump administration’s immigration crackdownin Minnesota. They claimed the demonstrators were members of antifa who conspired against the federal government to block arrests and deportations by setting up blockades around government buildings and throwing chunks of ice at federal vehicles, among other actions.

The Dictatorship

Tulsi Gabbard and Senate GOP face difficult new questions over influence of her ‘guru’

Published

1 hour ago

June 24, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Tulsi Gabbard and Senate GOP face difficult new questions over influence of her ‘guru’

About a month into Donald Trump’s second term, Senate Republicans weighed whether to confirm one of the president’s worst nominees. Indeed, the list of reasons to reject Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination for director of national intelligence was not short.

The former congresswoman lacked the requisite experience in intelligence matters. She had an indefensible habit of echoing Russian propaganda. She struggled to explain her record of defending Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian regime. Senators heard from former national security officials who issued unsubtle warnings about elevating Gabbard to an important and influential position.

But in case that weren’t quite enough, let’s also not overlook the fact that Gabbard was a member of a secretive Hare Krishna offshoot religious sect that is considered by many of its former members to be an abusive cult.

Gabbard, who wrapped up her tenure as DNI last week, has long insisted that any suggestion that she was somehow enthralled to or controlled by this sect or its leader, whom she has referred to as her “guru,” is just bigotry against her faith.

But it’s against this backdrop that The Washington Post obtained hundreds of secret memos prepared for Gabbard during her congressional tenure, which were put together by members of the alleged cult and which included thousands of pages of specific directives to her on policy and politics.

After careful analysis of thousands of these documents, which have not been independently verified by MS NOW, the Post determined that they likely came from Gabbard’s secretive guru, a man named Chris Butler.

The memos, starting in 2013, when the Hawaiian first arrived on Capitol Hill, reflect a dynamic in which Gabbard didn’t just take direction from the materials, but essentially took dictation from the alleged cult leader: Memos told Gabbard what she should do as a member of Congress, and she often did exactly that, sometimes word for word.

The Post’s Jon Swaine spent months trying to get Gabbard to respond to questions, but to no avail. Her spokeswoman reportedly encouraged Swaine to drop the story, saying, “I cannot imagine WaPo’s readers would be interested in yet another uncredible, bigoted attack on the DNI’s faith.”

On May 20, Swaine nevertheless alerted the DNI and top members of her staff to the fact that the Post was prepared to publish his reporting anyway on her association with Butler.

On May 22, Fox News reported that Gabbard was leaving the administration, ostensibly because of a health issue involving her husband.

This week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke on the Senate floor and commented on the reporting:

There are reports that Tulsi Gabbard was receiving instructions from a so-called guru and repeating them word for word. That ought to concern all of us if it’s true. No one knows who this guru really is, what his connections are, and where the instructions came from. … We need answers.

The New York Democrat’s comments made sense, though it’s worth considering who, exactly, “we need answers” from.

It stands to reason, for example, that Gabbard has some explaining to do, but I’m also interested in the answers from those who elevated her to an influential intelligence office in the first place.

In February 2025, confronted with an avalanche of reasons to reject Gabbard’s nomination, 52 Senate Republicans — every GOP member except Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell — shrugged off every red flag and voted to confirm her as the nation’s DNI, including so-called “moderates” such as Maine’s Susan Collins and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski.

The question for these 52 senators seems obvious: Do you regret that confirmation vote and now recognize it as a mistake? Or do you still think it was a good idea to put Gabbard in this influential intelligence position?

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”

The Dictatorship

Trump ignored warnings before launching Iran war, reporters tell MS NOW

Published

1 hour ago

June 24, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Trump ignored warnings before launching Iran war, reporters tell MS NOW

Jun. 23, 2026, 2:30 PM EDT

In the lead-up to the Iran war, President Donald Trump dismissed the possibility that Tehran would close the Strait of Hormuz despite warnings from his top military adviser, authors of a new book told MS NOW’s Lawrence O’Donnell on Monday.

In their first televised interview about “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump,” New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan said Trump also disregarded warnings from Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about the potential effects on American weaponry and about casualties.

The initial closure of the strait, a narrow passageway through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes, led to a spike in gas and oil prices. According to Swan, Trump thought Iran would have limited time to take action because the war would be over quickly — a claim he has made repeatedly during the nearly four-month-long war.

“He felt that this regime was a paper tiger, that this was going to be a fast war,” Swan said on “The Last Word.” “He just said he felt that that was going to be the case, that they were going to collapse very quickly.”

“It’s a form of magical thinking, actually, is what it all boils down to,” he added.

The revelation is just one of several in the book — which is based on more than 1,000 interviews — that illustrate how Trump repeatedly bases geopolitical decisions on his own whims rather than experts’ assessments.

Another example of such thinking was when Trump floated a plan to expel 2 million Palestinians from Gaza so he could turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” Haberman and Swan wrote in the book that one senior aide characterized the idea as “legitimately nutso … but very on-brand.”

Haberman also spoke about “how scared” people were inside the White House ahead of last year’s so-called Liberation Daywhen Trump unveiled sweeping global tariffs. (The Supreme Court struck down those tariffs in February.)

“They were scared at how close the bond markets came to just completely melting down seven days later, which was finally what got him [Trump] off of it, but again, it was the willingness to just go straight to the brink” that was jarring, Haberman said.

Despite such fear among Trump’s staff, Haberman added, the White House makes up “a group of people who genuinely want to see him succeed.”

Julianne McShane is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW who also covers the politics of abortion and reproductive rights. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at jmcshane.19 or follow her on X or Bluesky.