As India and the world rush support to Myanmar, US efforts appear faltering

Sarah Charles, a former senior USAID official who managed disaster-response groups and humanitarian efforts underneath the Biden administration, described the present state of the system as being in “shambles”, and pointed to a scarcity of personnel and assets that would sluggish efforts to rescue survivors from collapsed buildings and ship vital support.

Chatting with reporters in Washington, Trump acknowledged the catastrophe, stating, “We’re going to be serving to. We’ve already alerted the individuals. Yeah, it’s horrible what occurred.”

On the State Division, spokesperson Tammy Bruce emphasised that the administration would decide its response primarily based on regional requests and reviews from affected areas.

“USAID has maintained a crew of catastrophe specialists with the capability to reply if catastrophe strikes,” Bruce mentioned. “These skilled groups present rapid help, together with meals and secure ingesting water, wanted to save lots of lives within the aftermath of a catastrophe.” Regardless of important funding cuts, Bruce insisted that “there was no impression on our means to carry out these duties”.

But, on the identical day, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, alongside Jeremy Lewin — a former affiliate of Elon Musk now serving in a senior USAID function — introduced to workers and Congress that the majority remaining USAID workers could be dismissed, with the company’s remaining programmes being transferred underneath the State Division.

Since taking workplace on 20 January, the Trump administration, working carefully with Musk’s groups, has dramatically lowered international support. Widespread workers dismissals, pressured leaves, and abrupt contract terminations have disrupted world support and improvement initiatives, leaving worldwide companions scrambling to compensate for USAID’s sudden withdrawal and billions of {dollars} in unpaid commitments.