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Trump officials unveil private sector blueprint for life after USAID

Is «Trade Over Aid» replacing USAID?
Fox News Digital gets exclusive access to the U.S. Mission’s «Trade Over Aid» forum in New York as Trump officials, including U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz, push private investment over traditional foreign aid.
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EXCLUSIVE: The Trump administration is laying out its clearest blueprint yet for what comes after decades of traditional U.S. foreign aid, arguing that private investment, trade and American business — not taxpayer-funded assistance — should become America’s primary engine for development abroad.
At a U.S. Mission to the United Nations «Trade Over Aid» forum in New York Monday, Ambassador Mike Waltz, the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview that the administration is «completely reforming how we do aid» by moving away from taxpayer-funded programs and toward private-sector-led development.
«For too many years, the United States and other countries have poured billions and billions of dollars into these aid programs and got very little in return,» Waltz said. «You go to these forums at the United Nations and at development agencies around the world, and you never find the private sector. You find NGOs and academics and governments, but you don’t find the creators of growth and the creators of jobs.»
U.S. URGES DONORS TO ABANDON U.N.R.W.A. FUNDING AS U.N. DEFENDS AGENCY’S MISSION
Ambassador Mike Waltz speaks at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations’ «Trade Over Aid» forum in New York, where Trump administration officials pitched private investment as a new engine of global development. July 14, 2026. (Donald Conahan/ U.S. mission to the U.N.)
Waltz said the new model is designed to «create jobs, to create business for American companies in line with America First,» while also raising living standards abroad and reducing instability that can fuel terrorism and poverty.
The administration moved to dismantle USAID in 2025, arguing the agency was inefficient and too often disconnected from U.S. foreign policy. Asked directly whether «Trade Over Aid» is replacing USAID, Waltz said USAID’s functions had been folded into the State Department as part of a broader efficiency effort, but insisted the initiative is about something larger than one agency.
«What we’re doing, this isn’t about USAID or what replaces it,» Waltz said. «That was an efficient effort to get our aid to serve our foreign policy, not the other way around. But what I think is more important is how do we help American businesses and how do (we) help create jobs around the world and reduce dependency.»
The stakes are immediate: with USAID reorganized under the State Department and aid budgets under pressure, the Trump administration is trying to show that it has a replacement model for how the U.S. helps poorer and fragile countries. The answer it is pitching is not more traditional aid, but more private capital, more trade, more deals for American companies and fewer open-ended taxpayer commitments.
EXCLUSIVE: SERBIAN PRESIDENT VUČIĆ SAYS SUPPORT FOR US ‘SURGED’ UNDER TRUMP, INVITES HIM TO VISIT BELGRADE
The forum brought together representatives from dozens of countries, U.N. agencies, international financial institutions and major private-sector players, including Microsoft, Google, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Boeing, Walmart, Mastercard, Meta and others.
Czech Environment Minister Igor Cerveny, who attended the forum, said the idea resonated with his country’s own post-communist experience.
After communism, he said, the Czech Republic had to rebuild through work, business, industry and innovation rather than dependency.

Ambassador Dan Negrea addresses the U.S. Mission to the United Nations’ «Trade Over Aid» forum in New York, July 13, 2026. (Donald Conahan/ U.S. mission to the U.N.)
«If you work on your economy, on your industry, on your society, on nature as well, probably two, three, five years later, (you will) be in a better position,» Cerveny told Fox News Digital. «You have your own money. You are not now the slave of (asking). You are now the master of your destiny.»
Cerveny said trade gives countries an «opportunity to cooperate» rather than forcing them to return again and again with the same request: «Please give me some money.»
Ambassador Dan Negrea, who is spearheading the initiative in the U.S. Mission, told Fox News Digital that shrinking aid budgets around the world make a new model necessary.
«We need to think differently about how we help developing countries in an environment in which, in the United States, we are indebted and we cannot continue to spend money on helping other countries the way we used to,» Negrea said. «Development aid is going down not only in the U.S., but in countries around the world.»
Negrea said the initiative has received less resistance from developing countries than from traditional donor nations.
«Interestingly, there is less pushback from countries receiving aid than from some donor countries that like to continue in this attitude of charity, being magnanimous to other countries,» he told Fox News Digital. «For years and years and for decades, many developing countries are saying that they want to end this status of recipient of charity and move to a much more dignified relationship of partners and development.»
But some leaders from developing countries also warn that trade cannot replace aid overnight, especially in emergency settings. The Democratic Republic of Congo’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation, and Francophonie, Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner, told Fox News Digital that aid remains critical in crises such as the Ebola outbreak in eastern DRC.
«Aid sometimes can transform dramatically a situation,» she said. «This is not something you can change overnight with trade. But yes, over a long term, trade is the pathway to create greater growth, greater economic prosperity, and therefore also more equal relationships between countries.»
Kayikwamba Wagner added that the shift must be «adapted to circumstances» and not be «too abrupt.»
The initiative already has drawn 46 countries, and launched a digital library with 63 capacity-building offers from private companies, governments, NGOs, philanthropies, academic institutions and international organizations.
But when pressed on what those offers have produced so far, Negrea acknowledged the initiative is still in its early stages. The library was inaugurated last week, he said, and the goal now is to turn offers into concrete outcomes.
«We want to see more deliverables,» Negrea said. «We want to see actual transactions that were done. We want to see countries using the digital library to see usable capacity building offers coming from around the world. So we want to help without the cost to the U.S. taxpayers, but at the same time creating opportunities for American companies.»
The central challenge facing the effort is whether private capital will go where aid has traditionally been most needed: fragile countries with weak institutions, unreliable infrastructure, corruption, conflict or markets too risky for major investors.
WALTZ CALLS U.N. A ‘CESSPOOL FOR ANTISEMITISM’ AS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PUSHES MAJOR REFORMS

Ambassador Dan Negrea moderates a panel at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations’ «Trade Over Aid» forum in New York, joined by Czech Environment Minister Igor Cerveny and other participants. (Donald Conahan/ U.S. mission to the U.N.)
Waltz argued that is exactly where institutions such as the U.N. Development Program, the World Bank and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation can play a role.
«When we talk to organizations like J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs and others, they’re saying, we want to invest hundreds of millions into these industries abroad, but they need better laws, they need better arbitration,» Waltz said. «We need to know that we can get our money out for our investors here in the United States.»
He said the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and U.S. contributions to the World Bank can provide «risk insurance and guarantees» for investments in riskier markets, including critical minerals projects needed by the U.S. technology sector.
«It is incredibly risky,» Waltz said. «Sometimes these capital providers like on Wall Street and in New York are only going to go to the safest place. Sometimes it makes sense, for example, as we’re looking for critical minerals for our tech industry, to go into risky places, but they need a little help.»
The strongest note of caution came not from critics outside the room, but from inside the forum itself.
Alexander De Croo, the former Belgian prime minister who now leads United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said trade and aid should not be treated as enemies.
«Trade is a destination, but development is how we get to that destination,» De Croo said. «Markets do not build themselves. They have to be built.»
De Croo said investment flows when rules are predictable, institutions are trusted and workers have the skills to seize opportunity. He described UNDP’s role as helping countries build those foundations. «There is no country over the past decades that has successfully developed without a strong private sector and without trade being a big part of that,» he said.
Christopher Sharrock, Microsoft’s vice president for United Nations and international organizations, also warned that aid still has a role that markets cannot fully replace.
«Aid does do an essential job and it does a job that possibly nothing else can do,» Sharrock said, pointing to vaccination campaigns, famine response and natural disasters as areas where assistance remains critical.
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Alexander De Croo, UNDP administrator and former Belgian prime minister, speaks at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations’ «Trade Over Aid» forum in New York, July 13, 2026. (Donald Conahan/ U.S. mission to the U.N.)
For the Trump administration, «Trade Over Aid» is being pitched as a more disciplined, America First answer to development: fewer handouts, more deals, less dependency, more jobs for American companies and foreign partners alike.
But the test will be whether it can deliver not only in countries already ready for investment, but in the hardest places — the places where aid has long filled the gap because markets would not.
united nations, aid, trade, world
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Rubio’s call to combat global funders of far-left terrorism could put Singham in crosshairs

Marco Rubio: Far-left political terrorism is an international threat getting worse
Secretary of State Marco Rubio warns against the resurgence of far-left political terrorism, highlighting its global historical presence and rising current threat. He cites examples of violent attacks, from firebombings in Greece to assassinations by Marxist groups across the world. Rubio urges international partners to unite, share intelligence, and dismantle these interconnected networks of ‘poisonous resentment.’
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Secretary Marco Rubio’s call for global cooperation to combat far-left political terrorism could implicate Neville Roy Singham, a Marxist nonprofit financier who is currently facing a federal grand jury probe in New York.
Singham, a 72-year-old American who sold his tech company for $785 million in 2017 and now lives in Shanghai, is known to fund pro-Chinese Communist Party groups that operate in the U.S. He has funneled $278 million into the broad network of nonprofits since 2017, according to a Fox News Digital investigation. These groups regularly organize and participate in anti-ICE, anti-Israel and pro-Iran demonstrations.
At a State Department summit held in Washington, D.C., Thursday, Rubio urged more than 60 countries to treat far-left global terrorism as a counterterrorism priority.
Jodie Evans and Neville Roy Singham are pictured together. (Getty Images)
DOJ LAUNCHES GRAND JURY PROBE INTO MARXIST MOGUL NEVILLE ROY SINGHAM’S FUNDING OF LEFTIST GROUPS
«For far too long, however, our counterterrorism doctrine has had a blind spot – a blind spot when it comes to extremist violence from the political left, Rubio said. «Even today, the very idea that far-left terrorism could be a serious threat is treated as a right-wing fever dream, or worse, as a dangerous fascist conspiracy.»
Rubio noted that networks are coordinating across multiple countries, providing training instructions and using encrypted communication to facilitate unrest. He said that international cooperation is critical to disrupting the financing of dangerous organizations, and that some are working with hostile foreign states.
Rubio did not mention Singham by name and State Department officials did not respond to a request for comment.
Singham’s web of nonprofits are known to promote communist and Marxist ideals on social media platforms and on the ground at demonstrations across the country. Code Pink, which was co-founded by Singham’s wife, Jodie Evans, regularly protests in the U.S. Capitol, confronting lawmakers and openly admits that «China is Not Our Enemy.»
RUBIO PUTS ENTIRE WORLD ON NOTICE AGAINST RISE OF ‘POISONOUS’ FAR-LEFT TERROR ‘MASKED AS EQUALITY’
Rubio mentioned the dangerous influence Marxist beliefs can have when tied to acts of terrorism. He said the left often seems to excuse violence carried out by its own extremists.
«A bomb planted by a neo-Nazi group was a nefarious and murderous act of evil,» Rubio said. «But a bomb planted by a Marxist revolutionary – well, that’s just merely a tragic excess of idealism. Perhaps its means were misplaced or overzealous, but its ends were virtuous and just. That’s the implication of how they treat it.»
Congress has also taken note of Singham’s activities. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., launched an investigation into the Singham nonprofit network last year, and members in the upper chamber are also sounding the alarm on Singham’s ties to China.
«Chinese-funded, anti-American billionaires like Neville Roy Singham are instigating far-left chaos across our country,» Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., told Fox News Digital. «This needs to stop, and Secretary Rubio is rightly taking action to confront this transnational scourge head-on.»
INTEL EXPERT SAYS SINGHAM NETWORK IS MORE THAN A NONPROFIT SCANDAL—IT’S A SECURITY THREAT
Last month, Fox News Digital reported that the Department of Justice has launched a grand jury investigation into alleged financial crimes. Singham hasn’t responded to repeated requests for comment from Fox News Digital.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the grand jury in Manhattan has issued subpoenas as part of a probe launched by U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York, one of the country’s most powerful districts for federal prosecutions. Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche authorized the investigation as the Trump administration seeks to crack down on fraud, money laundering and other financial crimes in the multibillion-dollar nonprofit industry.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met privately with Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO David Solomon in New York earlier this year, where, according to sources familiar with the discussion, he warned that the firm could come under scrutiny over its alleged role in the movement of funds tied to Singham.
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U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) testifies during his Senate Foreign Relations confirmation hearing at Dirksen Senate Office Building on Jan. 15, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
During the meeting, Bessent encouraged Solomon to fully cooperate with the Justice Department’s investigation, telling him that Goldman Sachs’ handling of the Singham-linked funds could become part of the federal probe should they choose not to cooperate.
A source with knowledge of the conversation told Fox News Digital that the exchange was cordial, and that Solomon indicated Goldman Sachs would aid investigators.
«All distributions from Mr. Singham’s donor-advised fund were made to legal nonprofits, as determined by the IRS,» a Treasury spokesperson said. «There have been no distributions from the account since August 2023, and it was closed in early 2024.»
scott bessent, counter terrorism, terrorism, politics, globalism, marco rubio
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Sismo de 7.4 sacude a Guatemala: Autoridades declaran alerta anaranjada por daños y descartan tsunami

Un potente sismo de magnitud 7.4 con epicentro en las costas de Chiapas, México, provocó fuertes sacudidas en Guatemala y El Salvador. (Infobae Centroamérica/Emerson Del Cid)
La mañana de este viernes, 17 de julio, la Costa del Pacífico y la región sur-occidente del territorio guatemalteco se vieron sacudidas por un potente movimiento telúrico.
De acuerdo con el reporte oficial de la Red Sismológica Nacional del Instituto Nacional de Sismología, Vulcanología, Meteorología e Hidrología (INSIVUMEH), el evento sísmico se registró inicialmente a las 08:48 horas.
Aunque en un principio los sistemas automatizados arrojaron una magnitud preliminar de 5.8 con un supuesto epicentro dentro de la soberanía nacional, los expertos de la Sección de Sismología procedieron a realizar la revisión manual de los datos.
Tras analizar el volumen completo de la información a disposición, el instituto actualizó los parámetros oficiales, confirmando que el sismo tuvo una magnitud definitiva de 7.4 y que su epicentro se localizó realmente en las costas del Pacífico, en territorio de México, muy cercano a la frontera con Guatemala.
A raíz de la considerable magnitud de este terremoto y de su ubicación marítima, el Centro de Alerta de Tsunamis del Pacífico emitió una notificación preliminar para la región centroamericana.
No obstante, las autoridades científicas del INSIVUMEH, en su boletín de seguimiento técnico, aclararon que la clasificación de la amenaza para las costas de Guatemala es estrictamente Baja.
Los expertos detallaron que, si bien se descarta por completo un fenómeno de tsunami devastador o destructivo para el país, la población costera debe comprender el comportamiento de la naturaleza.
Un tsunami consiste en una serie de olas sucesivas y, aunque en esta ocasión no se presentará una catástrofe, los modelos hidrológicos prevén fluctuaciones en el nivel de la marea que no superarán los 100 centímetros (1 metro) de altura, viniendo acompañadas de un incremento en la fuerza de las corrientes y del oleaje convencional.
Las estimaciones de arribo de la primera perturbación marina comenzaron a registrarse a partir de las 09:35 horas en el departamento de San Marcos, extendiéndose de manera paulatina hacia Suchitepéquez, Escuintla, Santa Rosa, Retalhuleu y el puerto de Champerico.
Como parte de las acciones inmediatas de respuesta ante el potente sismo de las 08:48 horas, las autoridades han declarado formalmente la alerta anaranjada institucional.
Esta medida busca agilizar la movilización de recursos y la coordinación interinstitucional, dado que ya se reportan daños materiales en distintas partes del país. De manera preliminar, el sistema de emergencia contabiliza hasta el momento un total de 20 emergencias registradas. La distribución geográfica de estos incidentes se concentra principalmente en el occidente y centro de la República:
- Siete emergencias en el departamento de Quetzaltenango
- Cinco en Sololá
- Tres en San Marcos
- teres en Guatemala
- Una en Totonicapán
- Una en Retalhuleu.
Ante este escenario, la recomendación principal hacia las comunidades costeras y el sector pesquero artesanal es mantener la prudencia y alejarse temporalmente de la línea de playa hasta nuevo aviso, con el fin de evitar percances por los cambios súbitos en la fuerza del mar. Mientras tanto, en el territorio mexicano, las réplicas del sismo principal no han cesado; los servicios geológicos del vecino país del norte ya contabilizan más de 30 réplicas en las zonas colindantes al epicentro original, manteniendo en alerta a los cuerpos de socorro de ambos lados de la frontera.
En seguimiento directo al sismo registrado esta mañana y con el firme objetivo de salvaguardar la vida de los estudiantes guatemaltecos, el Ministerio de Educación (Mineduc), liderado por sus autoridades centrales, ha tomado medidas drásticas de carácter preventivo.
A través de una disposición oficial de última hora, la cartera educativa anunció la suspensión total de las clases presenciales para este viernes 17 de julio de 2026.
Esta orden de restricción temporal aplica estrictamente para los departamentos de San Marcos, Quetzaltenango, Suchitepéquez y Retalhuleu, las regiones del país que percibieron el movimiento telúrico con mayor intensidad y donde se concentra el mayor riesgo de réplicas.
La autoridad ministerial enfatizó que la medida de suspensión posee un carácter integral, por lo que abarca de forma obligatoria a todos los centros educativos que operan en las jurisdicciones mencionadas. Esto incluye a los establecimientos del sector público, del sector privado, los institutos por cooperativa, las escuelas municipales y todos los programas del sistema de educación extraescolar.
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Democrat scrambles to meet Angel Mom after she blasts lawmakers to their faces for ignoring families’ pleas

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Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., offered to promptly meet with an Angel Mom after she said during the second day of Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s confirmation hearing that she and other Angel Parents have been «completely ignored» in their push for immigration reform.
«Miss Bos, anxious to meet with you,» Durbin said. «I hope we can do it soon, maybe right after this.»
Jennifer Bos, whose daughter’s body was found in a bleach-filled container in a case in which an illegal immigrant was charged with concealing her death, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee in support of Blanche’s nomination, underscoring the Trump administration’s focus on violent crime and immigration enforcement.
Bos is among the Angel Families — relatives of people killed or harmed in crimes involving illegal immigrants — who have pushed lawmakers for stricter immigration enforcement.
EXCLUSIVE: DHS HONORS ANGEL FAMILIES DURING NATIONAL CRIME VICTIMS WEEK, CALLS CRIMES ‘COMPLETELY PREVENTABLE’
Jennifer Bos, mother of Megan Bos, dries her tears as she speaks during the second day of acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche’s Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on his nomination to be attorney general, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on July 16, 2026. President Donald Trump’s pick to be the next US attorney general — his former personal defense lawyer Todd Blanche. (Ken Cedeno / AFP via Getty Images)
Durbin’s offer to meet with Bos, one of his constituents, came as Bos revealed during an exchange with Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., that it was very difficult for Angel Moms to meet with their lawmakers.
«This is the first time I’ve ever spoken with him,» Bos said. «I haven’t spoken with them. He spoke to me.»
«Well, I hope—and I’m sure that—I hope I heard the ranking member yesterday talked about the need for the attorney general to meet with victims, which I support,» Britt said in response. «And I certainly am hopeful that he will, and others, will meet with you.»
Bos went on to say that several pieces of legislation introduced last session have been ignored by Democratic officials.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) during a hearing to examine the abduction of Ukrainian children by the Russian Federation on Capitol Hill on Wednesday December 3, 2025 (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
«And there hasn’t been any way to really get in and talk to anybody, especially those who are opposed to those legislations for whatever reason,» said Bos.
At the end of the hearing, Durbin addressed Bos for a second time, offering to meet with her immediately after the hearing ended.
«I didn’t know it was a hardship for you to make this journey here, testify, from Illinois,» Durbin continued in his remarks to Bos, offering to meet her. «And I don’t want you to have to wait to see me. I want to meet with you now, and we can talk as soon as this meeting adjourns, if it’s okay with you, if it fits in your schedule.»
TODD BLANCHE ‘HONORED AND HUMBLED’ BY TRUMP’S AG NOMINATION AFTER EXPLOSIVE WEEK OF FEDERAL ARRESTS

Megan Bos was allegedly found dead in Luis Mendoza-Gonzalez’ backyard in Illinois in April 2025. (Fox News)
Bos told senators during the second day of Blanche’s confirmation hearing about the «unbearable agony» her family endured after her daughter, Megan Bos, was found partially decomposed inside of a garbage can in April 2025, following a 51-day search. The Lake County Coroner’s Office ruled Bos’ cause of death «undetermined,» saying the autopsy could not determine how she died or whether her death was a homicide or drug-related.
TODD BLANCHE EARNS ATTORNEY GENERAL BID ENDORSEMENT FROM LAW ENFORCEMENT ALLIANCE AHEAD OF CONFIRMATION
Jose Luis Mendoza-Gonzalez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico charged in the case, was initially released from local custody after an Illinois judge determined the state charges against him — including two counts of concealment of a death, abuse of a corpse and obstruction of justice — did not qualify for pretrial detention under state law.
ICE then arrested Mendoza-Gonzalez in Chicago in July 2025, after federal authorities said he was in the country illegally.
Bos praised Blanche for stepping in after local officials failed to secure justice.

Jennifer Bos said ICE’s VOICE office comforted her after her daughter’s alleged killer was temporarily let free under Illinois sanctuary law. (Fox News)
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«I’m asking the committee not to wait until another mother is sitting where I am,» Bos said during her opening remarks. «Confirm Todd Blanche. He is a leader who will uphold the law, honor victims, confront dangerous criminal organizations, and fight to give other American families the safety and lasting protection that came too late for mine.»
Mendoza-Gonzalez remains in federal immigration custody after being arrested by ICE in July 2025.
He was arrested on charges related to his immigration status.
He also faces state charges stemming from Bos’ death.
Fox News Digital reached out to Durbin’s office for comment.
katie britt, kristi noem, tom homan, hearings, todd blanche
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