After Donald Trump froze nearly all U.S. foreign aid last week, international projects on health, education, food, and all other humanitarian areas were placed in jeopardy. On Tuesday night, newly confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio tried to undo some of the confusion by issuing a memo waiving the aid freeze for “livesaving humanitarian assistance.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio partially walked back a freeze on foreign assistance, saying the US would keep funding "life-saving" humanitarian aid.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio has ordered an immediate halt to work on virtually all existing foreign aid programmes pending a review into whether they are consistent with President Donald Trump’s policies, according to an internal cable seen by the Financial Times.

Health and humanitarian groups around the world were still uncertain on January 29 if and how they could resume work after the United States issued a waiver for “life-saving” assistance in President Donald Trump’s freeze on U.S. foreign aid.

In a follow-up memo after an outcry from aid groups, Rubio clarified that other “humanitarian assistance” besides food would also be exempt during the review period. Humanitarian assistance was defined as “core life-saving medicine, medical services, food, shelter and subsistence assistance”.

Exemptions include humanitarian assistance such as core life-saving medicine, medical services, food, shelter and subsistence assistance

Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued the waiver on Tuesday night after aid groups worldwide warned that the blanket ban on foreign aid funding and activity for 90 days had put millions of lives at risk.

The State Department on Wednesday sought to clarify President Donald Trump's order to freeze and review foreign development aid after the top U.S. diplomat blunted some of the chaos that ensued with an emergency order that could shield the world's largest HIV program from the 90-day funding freeze.

It is estimated that PEPFAR supports treatment for over 20 million people living with HIV, accounting for two-thirds of all people globally receiving HIV treatment

Despite a waiver by the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, many development assistance and cooperation programmes are on hold. The US wants to reassess funding to see if they are in line with the new Tr

With Colombian anti-narcotrafficking helicopters idle for want of fuel and news outlets in Ukraine threatened by closure, aid organisations and governments around the world are frantically trying to understand how the abrupt freeze of US foreign aid will affect their activities.

Conflict tracking in Myanmar. Investigations of Chinese human trafficking. Refugee healthcare in Thailand. Strengthening independent media in Mongolia. Environmental conservation in Tibet. These are just a few of the Asia-focused programmes operating with US government funds that risk permanent closure after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week suspending all foreign aid,