The United States has announced a $2 billion pledge for U.N. humanitarian aid as President Donald Trump continues to slash U.S. foreign assistance funding. The money is a tiny fraction of what the U.S. has contributed in the past but reflects what the administration believes is a generous amount that will maintain the United States' status as the world's largest humanitarian donor. The pledge creates an umbrella fund from which money will be doled out to individual agencies and priorities. The announcement caps a crisis year for many U.N. organizations as the U.S. and other Western donors have cut billions in funding, prompting massive cuts in spending and jobs.
The Trump administration is restricting the number of refugees admitted annually to the United States to 7,500 and they'll be mostly white South Africans. It's a dramatic drop after the U.S. previously allowed in hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and persecution from around the world. The administration published the news in a notice on the Federal Register on Thursday. No reason was given for the numbers, which are a dramatic decrease from last year's ceiling of 125,000 set under the Biden administration. The memo stated that the admission of the 7,500 refugees during the 2026 budget year is "justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest."
Nursing homes around the U.S. say they're feeling the effects of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. As Trump has rescinded work authorizations for various groups of immigrants with Temporary Protected Status, long-term care employees have been pulled from their jobs. Meantime, facilities around the country say they're seeing a narrowing of the pipeline of potential candidates. Some homes who had tapped refugees from Afghanistan, Ukraine and elsewhere are lamenting the pause of refugee arrivals. Others who sought out nurses in Nigeria and the Philippines say visa waits are dragging on so long that candidates are choosing other countries.
