Democracy Now! 2026-04-16 Thursday

From New York and Los Angeles, this is Democracy Now. I think it's close to over here. I mean, I view it as very close to over. You know what? If I pulled up stakes right now, it would take them 20 years to rebuild that country. And we're not finished. As President Trump claims once again that the war on Iran is almost over, we'll look at the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports and Iran's threats to retaliate by disrupting shipping in the Red Sea and the Sea of Oman. We'll get the latest. Then, to Sudan. Three years since the war in Sudan began. It is a tragic milestone in the conflict that has shattered the country of immense promise and created the world's largest humanitarian crisis. And finally, into the woodchipper, a whistleblower's account of how the Trump administration shredded USAID. We'll speak to a former USAID official about the inside story of what happened when Elon Musk and Doge dismantled the agency. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, democracynow.org, the war on peace report. I'm Nadmin Sheikh. The Senate has rejected a resolution seeking to rein in President Trump's ability to wage war against Iran. On Wednesday, all Senate Republicans, except for Kentucky's Iran poll, voted against the war-poused resolution, which failed in a vote of 47 to 52. Every Democrat, except Pennsylvania's John Fetteman, voted in favor of it. The House is set to vote on a similar measure this afternoon. Meanwhile, Senators voted down a pair of resolutions seeking to halt the sale of armored bulldozers, 1,000-pound bombs, and other hardware to Israel's military, despite Israel's repeated use of U.S. weapons to commit war crimes. The resolutions were sponsored by Vermont independent Senator Bernie Sanders. Israel did not have the right to violate international law and wage an all-out war of unspeakable destruction against the entire Palestinian people in what experts have correctly concluded is a genocide. 40 of the Senate's 47 Democrats voted for at least one of Sanders' two resolutions. The seven Democrats, who sided with Senate Republicans in opposition, are Richard Blumenthal, Chris Coons, Catherine Cortes-Musto, John Fetteman, Kirsten Gillibrand, Jackie Rosen, and Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Minority Leader. The nonprofit, A New Policy, which was founded by former State Department officials who resigned in protest of U.S. policies in Israel, said Wednesday's vote shows for the first time that an overwhelming majority of Senate Democrats oppose unconditional aid to Israel. They added, quote, American politics are changing, and eventually American policies will follow, unquote. Iran's military warned Wednesday it will expand its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz to include the Sea of Oman and the Red Sea, unless the United States ends its naval blockade of Iranian ports. Iran's threat of escalation came as U.S. Central Command said its naval forces have completely halted trade going in and out of Iran by sea, with at least 10 vessels forced to turn around so far. Meanwhile, the White House said it was optimistic about continuing negotiations between the U.S. and Iran after a high-level Pakistani delegation arrives in Tehran seeking to lay the groundwork for a second round of talks with the U.S. Pakistani officials said they're expecting a, quote, major breakthrough, while a spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry said he remains skeptical. It remains to be seen to what extent the other side is truly serious about the claims they've made regarding diplomacy. It is the Americans who must prove their seriousness, because they have not only failed to adhere to their commitments many times, but have also fundamentally destroyed the negotiating table. In southern Lebanon, at least 20 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Wednesday, just one day after Lebanese and Israeli envoys held the first direct talks between the two countries in more than three decades. Among the dead were four paramedics killed in a so-called triple-tap strike while on an emergency rescue mission. This comes as a senior Lebanese security official tells Reuters that an Israeli strike has severed the last bridge linking southern Lebanon to the rest of the country. Lebanon's health ministry reports at least 2,167 people have been killed and more than 7,000 wounded in Israeli strikes since March 2nd. More than 1.2 million people, including 350,000 children, have been forced to flee their homes. This is why El Sabar, who lost his mother and brother in an Israeli strike. Nobody should have to go through this. Unfortunately, my brother, sister and I are not the only ones that are going through this. Hundreds, if not thousands, on that day, families are mourning in the same way that I am. In the Gaza Strip, Palestinians held a funeral procession Wednesday for five people killed in an Israeli air strike near a camp in Al Shati refugee camp in a cafe in an Al Shati refugee camp in western Gaza City. We are also human beings and we have the right to live. We love life. We are not terrorists, as the occupation claims, but the world's silence is what gave the occupation an excuse to continue killing us daily. Earlier today, an Israeli drone strike near a school in Bat Leia killed two brothers. Palestinian health officials say the latest killings bring the death toll from Israeli attacks to 767 since a U.S. brokered ceasefire was supposed to have taken effect last October. The U.S. military says it struck an alleged drug vessel in the eastern Pacific on Wednesday, killing three people. The Pentagon offered no evidence that the boat was carrying drugs, describing those killed as, quote, narco-terrorists. On Tuesday, a similar U.S. strike against an alleged drug boat in the eastern Pacific killed four people, while a strike Monday killed two people, according to the U.S. military. The later strikes bring the Pentagon's claimed death toll to at least 178 since the operations began in the eastern Pacific and the Caribbean last September. At least 53 vessels have been targeted. International legal experts and human rights groups say the strike's amount to extrajudicial killings. House Democrats have filed six articles of impeachment against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. The articles were introduced by Democratic Congressmember Yasemin Ansari of Arizona. The articles accuse Hegseth of running an unauthorized war against Iran without congressional approval, committing violations of the law of armed conflict, including the bombing of a girl's school in Minab, Iran, the reckless handling of sensitive military information in connection with the signal-gate scandal, obstructing congressional oversight, the abuse of power and politicization of the armed forces, and engaging in conduct bringing disrepute upon the U.S. armed forces. At least eight Democratic lawmakers have signed on as co-sponsors, but the measure has virtually no chance of passing given the current Republican majority in Congress. Congressmember Ansari said in a statement, quote, only Congress has the power to declare war, not a rogue president or his lackeys. A new analysis by The Guardian finds that the world's top 100 oil and gas companies banked more than $30 million in windfall profits per hour in the first month of the U.S. Israeli War in Iran. Saudi Aramco, Gazprom, and ExxonMobil are among the biggest beneficiaries. Collectively, oil and gas companies stand to make $234 billion by the end of the year if oil prices continue to average $100 per barrel. Meanwhile, dozens of countries face budget shortfalls after cutting fuel taxes to help struggling consumers. In southern Turkey, a 14-year-old armed with five guns and seven magazines opened fire inside a middle school on Wednesday, killing at least nine people and wounding 13 others before reportedly taking his own life. The attacker used weapons taken from his father, a former police officer. Mass shootings are extremely rare in Turkey, which has strict gun control laws. However, Wednesday's massacre was the second school shooting in just 48 hours. A day earlier, 16 people were injured when a former student opened fire in a high school elsewhere in southern Turkey. This is an eye witness. He was a kid about 17 or 18 years old who suddenly walked through the school's front door. He just started shooting directly at whoever came in front of him from inside, and then all the students and teachers started screaming and everyone scattered in different directions. Meanwhile, in Oklahoma, Paul's Valley High School principal Kirk Moore suffered a gunshot wound last week after tackling a 20-year-old armed with two semi-automatic handguns. No students were injured and the man was arrested. Prosecutors say he sought to carry out a mass shooting like the 1999 Columbine High School Massacre. According to the Gun Violence Archive, the U.S. has logged 106 mass shootings since January 1st, an average of one per day. A federal jury in Manhattan found Wednesday that Live Nation and its subsidiary, Ticketmaster, operated as a monopoly that harmed consumers and overcharged ticket buyers. 33 states and the District of Columbia sued Live Nation, arguing that the company used threats and retaliation to pressure artists and venues into using their services, including withholding lucrative concert tours from venues that did not sign exclusive deals with Ticketmaster. A judge will hold a second trial to determine whether to order a breakup of the company. Live Nation plans to appeal. And thousands of people took to the streets and cities across the U.S. on Wednesday, Tax Day, protesting the use of their tax dollars to fund wars, genocide and immigration enforcement. The nationwide day of action, including demonstrations in New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas and elsewhere. It was organized by the U.S. Palestinian Community Network and Taxpayers Against Genocide and endorsed by a broad coalition of civil society groups, including the Council on American Islamic Relations. Meanwhile, New York Governor Kathy Hochel has proposed an annual tax on second homes in New York City that are worth $5 million or more. Mayor Zohran Mamdani is backing the measure. In a Tax Day message, Mamdani spoke outside the 24,000-square-foot Manhattan penthouse of hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin, which Griffin purchased for $230 million. This is Democracy Now! This is Democracy Now! This is Democracy Now! This is Democracy Now! This is Democracy Now! This is Democracy Now! This is Democracy Now! This is Democracy Now! This is Democracy Now! This is Democracy Now! This is Democracy Now! This is Democracy Now! This is Democracy Now! This is Democracy Now! This is Democracy Now! This is Democracy Now! This is Democracy Now! This is Democracy Now! This is Democracy Now! This is Democracy Now! This is Democracy Now! This is Democracy Now! This is Democracy Now! This is Democracy Now! This is Democracy Now! This is Democracy Now! This is Democracy Now! Iran's military says it will begin disrupting shipping in the Sea of Oman and the Red Sea if the United States does not end its naval blockade of Iranian ports. Iran's threat of escalation came as US Central Command said US forces have completely halted maritime trade to and from Iran, with at least 10 vessels forced to turn around. At a press conference today, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the US plans to enforce the blockade. Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz in early March, disrupting global oil and trade markets. On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt was questioned about the Navy blockade of Iranian ports. On Iran, is there a timeline for how long this blockade is going to remain in place in the Strait of Hormuz by the United States? President Trump is voiced to you, are they heard among officials? Sure. I will never set timelines on behalf of the President of the United States, but with respect to the blockade, as you know it has been fully implemented and it's being enforced against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports. I want to make that point clear, I've seen some misreporting on that as well. This includes all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. And our US forces in the region are supporting the freedom of navigation for vessels that are transiting the Strait to and from non-Iranian ports. So I know some in the press were confused about that. We are supporting the freedom of navigation, just not with respect to any tanker or vessel that would benefit the economy of Iran as these negotiations continue. Caroline Levitt went on to say that the White House is optimistic about continuing negotiations between the US and Iran. On Wednesday, a high-level Pakistani delegation traveled to Tehran to lay the groundwork for a possible second round of talks. We go now to London, where we're joined by Leila Khalili. She's a professor of Gulf studies at the University of Exeter, an author of several books, including Extractive Capitalism, How Commodities and Cronism Drive the Global Economy, as well as Sinus of War and Trade, Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula. I can't think of any time that your work was more relevant than now, Professor. Let's start off with this naval blockade of Iranian ports entering its fourth day. The blockade is being enforced, according to SENTCOM, by 10,000 US troops over a dozen warships, dozens of aircraft. Can you explain exactly what's happening? And for the geographically challenged, the difference between the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf, and how it's extending beyond to the Red Sea and the Sea of Oman? Okay, thank you very much for having me on. And, yes, sadly, this is a terrible way for my area of expertise to actually be of relevance. So, first, the geography of the area. The Persian or Arabian Gulf sits between Iran on the north, a sliver of Iraq on the west, and then the various countries that are known as Emirates or kingdoms of the Gulf, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates around the southern shore of the Persian Gulf. At the narrowest bit where the Persian Gulf meets the Gulf of Oman on the other side, that's the Strait of Hormuz, which, depending on how you measure it, it's around 25 to 30 nautical miles. So, the Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz lies in the north between Iran in the north and the Masandam Peninsula, which is an extension of Oman in the south. So, in fact, the water of the Strait of Hormuz is divided between those. There is no high seas. This is not, this is territorial waters divided evenly between the two countries. So, that's the first thing. The second thing is that, of course, the whole, the Iran has basically lies on the entire northern shore of the Persian Gulf, but also the Gulf of Oman. So, it does have capacities. In fact, one of Iran's big ports in which India invested, Shah Bahaar, is in the eastern part of Iran in the northern shore of the Gulf of Oman. The Red Sea is on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula. So, the Red Sea lies on the western shore of Saudi Arabia. And the way that Iran can disrupt trade in that, in the Red Sea, is through firing missiles, for example, as it has done already to the port of Yambu, which is an oil lifting port for Saudi Arabia on the Red Sea. But also through possibly having its ally, the Ansar Allah of Yemen, which are otherwise also known as the Houthis, disrupting trade there as they did during the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. But there are a couple of things about that blockade question that I think is really important to note. First of all, the US claims to have stopped completely and totally the trade of oil out of Iran, or indeed has blockaded any kind of ships going to or from Iran. In fact, reporting from shipping companies that actually track this stuff comes back that in the four days since the blockade has started somewhere between 14 to 15 ships have gone through the Strait of Hormuz. At least half of them to Iran. And the way that they have done so is either through routes that obviously the US is incapable or not particularly good at policing through spoofing their automatic identification systems. The first thing is this process where the automatic identification system is essentially presented as somebody else's ID system indicating a different country or different flag country for the ship and or ships have gone dark, which is something that happens all the time. In fact, when I traveled on a freighter many, many years ago, 10, 11 years ago, one of the things that was most striking when going through the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and indeed the Persian Gulf was the extent to which warships, particularly US or the EU warships, actually turned off their AIS and went dark. So this is a practice, although a lot of people like to present it as some kind of a nefarious thing. If we are going to think of it as nefarious. In fact, a lot of ships take take part in this and this practice of going dark, including especially the United States. In fact, this is in the case of US naval ships has resulted in all sorts of in all sorts of problems, collisions, indeed, with US Navy ships. Now, in terms of the actual blockade and the effects it's having, I was just looking at the Bloomberg today and forgive me as I read this out because it was really striking to me. Bloomberg, which is of course one of the most reliable financial reporting sites anywhere in the world reports that we are moving from short term jolt to long term shock as the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market takes place. So this is what's happening and obviously the blockade continues because before the war before the US and Israeli war on Iran started on the 28th of February, somewhere between 140 to 170 ships a day were crossing the Strait of Hormuz. Now it's only 14 to 15. And one of the things that this has meant is that about 10 million barrels per day of oil supply has been lost. This includes although of course the primary people being punished by this shortage of oil are the economies in Asia. In fact, it actually also affects the United States because some of the last ships that left the Persian Gulf before the war started were actually delivering their supplies now. So we are going to see the effects of the blockade in the coming week or two. And apparently one of these ships actually arrived in California because unlike the rest of the United States, California actually does receive oil from the Middle East and its refineries use a medium sour oil, a kind of a medium grade and sour meaning high sulfur kind of oil that comes specifically from the Middle East. And the effects of this are of course being felt incredibly widely. Another really striking statistic was that an actual real world barrel of oil was sold in Sri Lanka at a more than $280 a barrel. That is double what the price is going elsewhere in the world. And so the effects of this are incredibly, incredibly striking. What the blockade might mean, of course, is that the US will start firing on ships that it assumes are Iranian or carrying oil from Iran or other cargo to Iran. But of course, if it does so within the context of the ceasefire, it is violating the ceasefire. And if it does so outside the context of ceasefire, Iran can interpret this as a belligerent action because of course the blockade is exactly that, particularly as it is blockading Iran in its territorial waters. So the state that we're in is that, of course, we're not getting any reliable or credible kind of reporting from the Trump administration whatsoever. And the state of play in the region, of course, is that Iran is going to defend itself against this imperial imposition and how it's going to do that remains to be seen. Laleh, as you mentioned, despite the fact that the US says that its blockade is entirely effective and no ships are getting through at least 14 to 15 have got through, including several Iranian ships. Now the Washington Post reported just yesterday that more troops are expected, US troops are expected to arrive in the region, an additional 6,000 to arrive soon and 4,000 to arrive at the end of the month. I mean, if you could say something about what would make, whether those troops and obviously the speculation, whether they might help to impose a more total blockade or, you know, where you see this going? It's really difficult to say, again, in part because reporting on this war has been so drastically narrow and that there's so much misinformation coming from the United States and its allies in the region, both the Arab Gulf Emirates as well as Israel. And of course, there is little reporting that comes from the Iranian side that is completely and totally verifiable. There's an interest in by everybody to sort of not give the whole picture. In the case of this troops arriving, I wonder how many of those troops that are arriving were the troops that were on the way when a couple of weeks ago, the US declared that there was going to be airborne troops deployed to Iran. There's also some question for me. And it's not a question that only I'm asking. I'm really curious as to why the pilot that was downed, the two pilots that were ostensibly rescued a couple of weeks ago have not appeared on any television shows. They have not been paraded around as such things are customary. And indeed, whether or not the story of pilot rescue was actually cover for a trial run of taking away Iran's uranium near Isfahan. So to me, it's unclear how the arrival, even of another 15 or 20,000 troops are going to accomplish this. Because in addition to obviously the troops arriving, you're going to need to have equipment arriving as well. You're going to have to have more ships, etc. And so this means repositioning basically the US naval posture, not just in the Gulf, but also elsewhere in the world as it shifts its ships to the region. This also indicates to some extent that perhaps what the aim of the Trump administration is, is to return to hostilities after the end of the ceasefire period. The problem with of course this is that there is so much that the sort of the shocks that we saw in the first couple of weeks of the war are going to only accelerate in a number of different areas. So obviously, the, as I said, about 10 million barrels per day of oil has been taken out of the market. But in addition to that, there was reporting today that there's going to be an incredible shortage of aluminum as aluminum smelters in the in the Gulf have either been hit. And in one case there was a very dramatically describing instance where an aluminum smelter in Abu Dhabi was hit and the actual molten aluminum froze in the in the pipes making I mean they would have to basically replace a lot of the equipment in those with aluminum actually prices at being at a four year high as higher than it has ever been since the Russian war on Ukraine. There's also China has just banned the export of sulfuric acid which is really incredibly necessary for the production both of fertilizer but also very much more significantly in the in the manufacturing of semiconductors helium reserves are down massively. Because of course Qatar was one of the world's biggest rassila plant was the world's single largest producer of helium although the US is the largest country producer of helium. And with helium being the helium amounts being down, semiconductor manufacturers including chip makers for companies like for example, Nvidia are concerned because of course helium goes to MRI machines and to chip makers. And of course, given the way that the market is so overblown and there's such a big bubble around AI, there's probably going to be a shift from using helium for MRI machines to towards the chip makers because of course that's going to be, you know, out to the profits in the pocket. And so that's the effect of the tech pros. And what that indicates of course is that this is going to also hit people really hard. So the effect of what the war is going to be is going to actually be felt even more strongly in the coming weeks in both inflationary terms and the inflation in the in the price of petrol at the at the petrol pump, but also in other ways, because of course transportation costs are going to be higher so food prices are going to be higher. When people's MRIs are going to be scheduled out by six months or some such when semiconductor manufacturing is going to be affected. This is going to be quite significant. The other factor in all of this of course is the question of insurance. And a lot of insurance providers have actually either suspended providing insurance to any ships in the whole of the Middle East region. The whole of the sort of region surrounding the Arabian Peninsula, or have increased their war is premium incredibly in a very kind of dramatic sort of way. Now the US has kind of promised since the beginning of the war that it is going to cover the insurance. It'd be a kind of a backstop for insurance. The US International Development Finance Corporation has talked about how it is moving towards sort of getting working with private insurance providers to ensure about $40 billion worth of ships. But that's actually like a drop in the bucket because in the early part of the war JP Morgan estimated that the actual amount needed for ships that are in the Gulf is as a minimum is $352 billion. So this would be 10% of the amount of ships. So again, this combination of both the market, the logic of commercial risk on the one hand, but on the other hand, the fact that Iran poses a credible threat to ships in the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf of Oman and both directly and via its allies and Ansar Allah in the Red Sea means that I actually think that the crisis is only going to get kind of more horrific before it gets any better. Laleh Khalili, thanks so much for joining us. Professor of Gulf Studies at the University of Exeter and author of several books including Extractive Capitalism, How Commodities and Cronism Drive the Global Economy and Sinus of War and Trade, Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula. When we come back, the ongoing civil war in Sudan enters its fourth year, creating what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Stay with us. Laila Downs performing clandestino. This is DemocracyNow, democracynow.org. I'm Nermin Sheikh with Amy Goodman. The ongoing civil war in Sudan enters its fourth year today, creating what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The country has been engulfed in civil war since April 2023 when fighting erupted between the Sudanese armed forces, SAF, and the paramilitary rapid support forces, or RSF. The war quickly drew in local militias as well as foreign powers. The United Arab Emirates in particular has been accused of aiding the RSF. The US government and a UN fact-finding mission have accused RSF and allied fighters of committing genocide. The death toll from three years of war remains unclear. The National Health Ministry says 11,000 civilians have been killed, but some estimates are as high as 400,000. Nearly 34 million people in the country need humanitarian assistance according to the United Nations. A new report from the Norwegian refugee council says in the two areas hit hardest by the conflict, North Darfur and South Corde, millions of people get only one meal a day, if any. On Thursday, international leaders meeting in Berlin pledged one and a half billion dollars for humanitarian aid in Sudan. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, quote, this nightmare must end and called for an immediate end to hostilities. The French Foreign Minister spoke at the meeting. Today I want to speak to the people of Sudan, to the Sudanese Armed Forces and the rapid support forces. I say this once again, there is an alternative to war. You must publicly commit to the path of negotiation and peace, starting by agreeing to the ceasefire proposed by the Quad. Together with its partners, France stands ready to contribute to a monitoring and verification mechanism to ensure its implementation. That was French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrault. The International Sudan Conference in Berlin was supposed to help revive faltering negotiations to end the fighting, but the two sides fighting the war were excluded. The Sudanese Foreign Minister criticized Western leaders for not coordinating with Khartoum, describing the conference as a, quote, colonial tutelage approach. For more on Sudan, we're joined by Choloud Khair, a Sudanese political analyst and head of Confluence Advisory, a think tank founded in Khartoum. She joins us today from Nairobi. Welcome back to the show, Choloud. If you could just share your reflections on these three years of war in Sudan and also your response to this Berlin conference that's ongoing. So, you know, the war in Sudan has really, you know, plunged the country and more importantly, its civilians into just the depths of hell. We have seen that it's not just the world's become the world's largest humanitarian crisis, as the UN points out, but also the world's largest hunger crisis, the world's largest displacement crisis, and the world's largest sexual violence crisis. But this war is, you know, not just fought on the bodies of civilians by happenstance. It's not incidental to the fighting. It is precisely the point. This war is a war of succession between the SAF and the RSF who want to inherit the military security state of former dictator Amr al-Bashir, and they're doing so in large part, not just by fighting each other, but also by diminishing as much as possible the revolutionary fervor and the calls for civilian democratic rule in Sudan. They're doing this by effectively fighting a war against civilians, ensuring that as a UN report today said, 71% of the country is below the poverty line that you have Sudan production capacity dwindling by 90% in just three years. And things seem set to get worse, particularly as agricultural season, which many will rely on to stave off the food insecurity and famine is likely to fail as a result of growing fuel and purchase of fertilizer prices owing to the war on in the Gulf. When it comes to the Berlin conference, you know, it very much set out to really focus attention on what is happening to civilians. So there was a component about the humanitarian impact of this war alongside pledging a pledging conference for the humanitarian aid, which is, as you said, raised $1.5 billion. There was a ministerial conference also to recommit from the international community some level of, you know, commitment towards a ceasefire. And it's more important, most importantly for me, there was an element of it that was about getting different civilians from different walks of life from different political backgrounds together. And this is really the thing that both the Sudanese armed forces and the rapid support forces object to. They don't just object to not being invited, they object to the fact that civilians are being centered rather than they themselves, when they themselves have have multiple platforms in which they can get global attention. What they're really afraid of here is that Sudanese civilians will come together precisely as a result of this war and create a lot of international pressure for the war to end. And so what they have been doing on the ground in real time is militarizing society in Sudan, militarizing the economy, and basically ensuring that a lot of people who want access to resources, who want access to services and who want access to livelihoods and money, pick up a gun to do so. And what they're hoping to do is by militarizing the context in Sudan that any calls for civilian democratic rule are pushed to the wayside. Khalil Khair, the United Nations World Food Program, reports that close to 25 million people are suffering from acute hunger, 2 million face famine or risk of famine. How has the U.S. Israeli war on Iran and the disruption of the Strait of Hamouz exacerbated food insecurity in the Gulf and also talk about the role of the UAE, the United Arab Emirates in supporting the RSF, the Rapid Support Force and the Rapid Sudan Forces. So what we have right now is that it's April next month in May is generally the planting season. Then you have the rainy season from late June to late September thereafter you have the harvest. And so what is needed right now in April is fuel for any kind of mechanical equipment required for farming as well as agricultural inputs like fertilizer, seeds, and others. Right now because of the close because of the issues around the Strait of Hamouz but also the hit to natural gas production which produces a lot of byproducts including fertilizer. What you have is in Sudan an inability to get access to those agricultural inputs just in the past few weeks as the impact of the fuel shortages has hit. We have seen vast queues in Sudan for petrol as well as for diesel and other fuels. What we also have in Sudan is that the exchange rate for the U.S. dollar is on the black market is pegged to the price of oil. And so as the price of oil skyrockets so too does the value of the dollar against the pound. This means that inflation is going through the roof and so whatever food is already available has become out of reach for very long. Out of reach for very many people. And because we don't see any end in sight for the tensions around the Strait of Hamouz and actually conversely we see perhaps a spreading of the tensions to the Red Sea which Sudan is a literal state of. There could also be serious issues around Sudan getting access to whatever fuel is available through the Red Sea into Port Sudan. What this means is that Sudan is effectively being choked by two different straits and at this very critical point in the agricultural season. We also have a political fallout from the war in the Middle East. What we saw recently was that the United States government has designated the Muslim Brotherhood of Sudan as a foreign terror organization. And this FTO designation makes it makes a very clear link in its wording to the relationship between the Muslim Brotherhood to Iran and the IRGC in Iran. Now the timing of this suggests that it falls very much into the broader scope of conflict that is taking place in the Gulf and the Sudan may now be sucked much more into the conflict that's going on in the Gulf that is not just merely between Iran on the one side and the UAE and Israel on the other side. But also that what we have here is that the Sudanese armed forces and the rapid support forces are effectively being placed into these two camps. The Sudanese armed forces is being placed into the camp of Iran while the rapid support forces being placed of course into the camp of Israel via the UAE. And what this means is that this war in Sudan which is very much a domestic national issue around as I said a war of succession for the security and military state is around the resources in Sudan could increasingly become much more of a proxy war. This means that any resolution to the war can also be taken out of Sudanese hands. And this means that Sudan is going to be plunged further into a conflict that has so far we see no sort of signs of abating. And before we conclude, could you just say something also about the region Sudan's neighbors you've said that there's not a single one of Sudan's neighbors that are not in some way involved or invested in the war. Sudan has seven neighbors all of which shares very porous borders with and what we have seen is that the westerns neighbors of Sudan whether that's Libya Chad the Central African Republic, all three have been implicated in reporting of supply lines coming through those countries into Darfur for the RSF originating from the UAE according to reporting out there. What we've also seen is that recently Reuters reporting on Ethiopia, having some of its bases being used by the RSF, as well as parts of South Sudan being used as a staging ground for some of the RSF attacks in the southeast region of Blue Nile. At the same time we have Eric Treyer to the east of Sudan, which has been reportedly training militias close to an ally to the Sudanese armed forces and Egypt, similarly also hosting some military assets close to the Sudanese border, and at the same time bombing the some of these weapons supply lines in Southeast in Libya there are also some reports that the Egyptians have used American made F 16s also in some of the campaigns in for example, the capital cartoon. And so in some way or other all of these countries are involved in either allowing space for weapons transfers or actively engage in training or military operations. And you also have the fact that a lot of Sudanese are displaced to some of these countries and there are some serious security concerns about the status of Sudanese in these countries, most notably in Egypt where we have seen many Sudanese refugees, even those carrying UNHCR refugee cards being detained by the Egyptian authorities, and some of whom have died in detention. This of course without a peep from the Sudanese armed forces allied to them in Sudan. So what you have is, you know, Sudan's people being displaced to these countries these countries being actively engaged in some to some lesser or greater degree in the war. And at the same time you have Sudan's resources coming out of Sudan, almost always illegally being smuggled into these countries whether it's Egypt or Chad, or South Sudan, with a lot of Sudanese products, for example, like gum Arabic very essential for the food and pharmaceutical industry being labeled as products of those countries. Gold, of course, has been also smuggled through some of these countries, adding a lot of economic buffers to those countries themselves, and then being exported elsewhere. And really none of that money reaching Sudanese people who as I've said earlier, aren't a very, very dire economic constraints as a result of the war. What this means is that really none of Sudanese land's neighbors can be counted upon to be arbiters of this conflict or indeed champions for peace if they are profiting from it in more ways than one. Khalud Khair, thank you so much for joining us. Sudanese political analysts and head of Confluence Advisory, a think tank founded in Khartoum. Coming up into the woodchipper, a whistleblower's account of how the Trump administration shredded USAID. Back in a minute. Come down here and say that. Come down here and say that. Come down here and say that. USAID found itself in the crosshairs of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE led by billionaire Elon Musk. In the middle of the night on February 3, 2025, Musk posted on X quote, we spent the weekend feeding USAID into the woodchipper. Could have gone to some great parties did that instead. President Zennrich is a former civil servant who worked at USAID through four administrations. He served as a director of policy, programs and planning in the Bureau of Global Health until January 2025. On March 2, 2025, he was placed on administrative leave for exposing the Trump administration's illegitimate and dangerous dismantling of the agency as he describes it. His book details what happened is just out. It's titled Into the Woodchipper, a whistleblower's account of how the Trump administration shredded USAID joining us from Washington, DC. Nicholas Zennrich, thanks so much for being with us. Can you start off by talking about your decision to become a whistleblower and then describe the range of health services since you were involved with the health program within USAID. Everything from AIDS prevention to TB prevention. And what is estimated for the number of lives lost for the sudden shredding of this agency? Yeah, thank you so much for having me. Yes, there are estimates that show that up to 14 million people will die over the next five years alone unnecessarily due to the cuts to USAID if that's not rectified. And we're already starting to see the impacts. In fact, 750,000 people have already died, most of those children, according to conservative estimates. And we're seeing as bad as it is that we're seeing so far, the worst unfortunately is yet to come with the next generation of children who are unable to get immunizations, with children being born with HIV at high rates when just a year ago those numbers were near zero. And so I'm afraid that unless we're able to make some changes, we will unfortunately be seeing those impacts years to come. And so Nicholas, could you talk about what happened in the early weeks of the Trump administration, including telling us about what the Trump appointed people at USAID, what they were doing and how much they actually knew about the agency? Sure. The DOGE team and the Trump officials that came in truly knew nothing about the agency. I put the Trump officials into two categories, those who were cruel and those who were buffoons. And most of the DOGE team that came in fell into that second category. These were people who were uninformed, unqualified, and truly knew nothing about the agency that they had been tasked with dismantling and ignored the warning of experts that this would put millions of lives at risk. Then your decision to write this book, why did you feel you needed to write an entire book? You wrote that memo explaining what had happened. Tell us about the book and your decision to write it. I wrote the book because it wasn't just, I think that there's two critical factors that people should take away from this book. The first is that we pulled the rug out from under people around the world. We broke promises to millions who were relying on USAID services and left them hanging out to dry. We broke promises to governments and broke partnerships that will have lasting effects for years to come. As the legacy of Trump's administration and foreign policy becomes clear, I think when the dust settles, we'll see that the dismantling of USAID ends up being one of the most impactful in a terrible way impacts of his entire legacy. But the other reason that I wrote the book was that maybe it's too late to save USAID, but there are other agencies, other institutions in the United States that are hanging on by a thread. And as a time, at a time that more Americans are feeling that something is fundamentally broken in our democracy, I wanted to tell this story to remind readers that normal people can make important choices every day. And when people see things that they truly believe are not okay, they're being asked to do things that are illegal. And this is inside the government or in everyday life, whether you're working at a university or working at a law firm or just a neighbor who sees neighbors getting picked up on the streets by mass ICE agents. It's up to you to stand up and speak out when you see something wrong. Speaking to reporters, February of last year, President Trump called for USAID to be shut down. It's absolutely obscene, dangerous, bad, very costly. I mean, virtually every investment made is a con job. So can you talk, Nicholas Enrich, about the significance of this decision, whether USAID is completely shut down? And what happened to, for example, PEPFAR, which was a President George W. Bush project, which of course addressed the issue of AIDS has been credited with saving some 26 million lives, enabling nearly 8 million babies to be born without HIV infection. I remember when Elon Musk said, oh, we made a little mistake, but we fixed that. Right. The decision to dismantle USAID was made by people, as I mentioned, who really knew nothing about the agency. And we would warn them on a day-by-day basis. And I think one of the things that I wrote this book about was to expose however bad viewers might think that from the outside that things were inside of USAID, they were far, far worse. These were people who ignored warnings that were specific to U.S. national security. For example, there was an outbreak of Ebola happening in Uganda at the time that USAID was being dismantled. And while I knew we couldn't start a robust outbreak response that we usually have because of everything that was being dismantled, there were a few key activities that I really felt that we needed to do. And they would not even let us screen passengers at airports that were traveling on international flights onwards to the United States to make sure that they did not have symptoms of Ebola. So that was a real risk to U.S. national security. And it was just sort of laughed off and ignored by the political appointees and doge. Yes, Enrich. One of the things, one of a very prominent member of Trump's cabinet, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, had initially been a great enthusiast of USAID but ultimately went along with what the Trump administration overall was planning to do with USAID. What do you think accounts for that change? Yeah, Marco Rubio was one of the biggest supporters in his previous career in the Senate and beyond of USAID. So when he was announced as the Secretary of State, the staff at USAID breathed a collective sigh of relief, thinking that while there might be policy changes coming, the core programs would be saved. And that's because Marco Rubio recognized that there was a value to Americans of providing foreign aid and international development assistance. Since then, however, I can't speak for him, but what I can say is that his comments that he's made about USAID, that the staff were insubordinate, that no one has died because of the cuts to USAID, have been complete untruths. What we've actually seen is a dissolving of the exact programs that Marco Rubio was once a supporter of. Nicholas, could you talk about, you know, we just, our earlier segment was about Sudan, the fact that it's now, the war is entering its fourth year. If you could talk about what the effects have been of USAID cuts in Sudan, which is facing the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. Sure. Sudan, unfortunately, is one of the most glaring examples of what happens when the world's richest man is killing the world's poorest children. There are people in Sudan, displaced people and refugees whose only access to healthcare and nutrition was through USAID support and services. And so we very rapidly started hearing horrible stories about families walking all day to get to a health clinic that had the USAID logo on the side of the building, only to find it shuttered. We're unable to get access to food supplements and ended up having to go home at the end of those days and make the harrowing decision of which of their children to feed. And finally, Nicholas, if you could talk about the fact that all of this is happening, the cuts in USAID are happening at the same time as all wealthy countries have massively cut down on their overseas aid. Right. It is, that is a compounding problem that we're seeing a decline in foreign aid around the world that has precipitated from the cuts to USAID. And I'm afraid, again, it's not just the impacts that are happening right now. USAID and other forms of international development built partnerships and long lasting support and allies around the world. President Obama said that for most people around the world, USAID is the United States. And I'm afraid to think about what the world, how the world looks at the US after USAID is gone. And I'm afraid that our cuts, our broken promises will actually turn countries who had once been our partners to look for support from adversaries like Russia or China and eliminate the support that we have built over all these decades. Nicholas Enrich, I want to thank you for being with us. New figures show Germany has for the first time surpassed the United States and overseas aid. Overseas aid from wealthy countries overall plummeting by 25%. Nicholas Enrich, former USAID official and author of the new book, Into the Woodshipper, a whistleblower's account of how the Trump administration shredded USAID. And that does it for our show. I'm here in Los Angeles for the theatrical release of the new documentary, Steal the Story, Please, directed by T. Lesson and Carl Deal. I'm here with Carl Deal in Los Angeles. Tomorrow afternoon and evening we'll be at a KPFK fundraiser at the Lemley Royal in West LA doing fundraisers at 110 and 710, the screening of the film followed by Q&A. Then we're headed to San Francisco with T. Lesson, the co-director. We can't wait to see people at the Roxy and in Berkeley and San Rafael. I'm Amy Goodman with Nermin Shea. Thank you.