2025-11-05
5 分钟The Economist.
Hello, this is Sarah Wu, co-host of Drum Tower, our podcast about China.
Welcome to Editor's Picks.
We've handpicked an article for you from the latest edition of The Economist.
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Seldom has history offered a greater opportunity to do so much for so many, argued George W.
Bush in 2003, when launching the president's emergency plan for AIDS relief.
Known as PEPFAR, it has saved more than 25 million lives,
mostly in Africa, through anti-HIV treatment.
Today, it seems like a relic, a symbol of a receding era in which rich countries,
led by America,
were willing to spend ever-increasing sums of money on stopping disease in poor countries.
America used to be the source of more than two-thirds of the aid destined to improve the health of people in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Trump administration has dismantled the United States Agency for International Development,
or USAID, the main disperser of overseas assistance.
It has proposed further large cuts over the next few years, as have other big donors.
Although that is not the end of aid, it does mean that what is spent must be spent wisely.
Dismantling USAID has caused chaos.
Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, has denied that it has caused any deaths.
And since American-funded data systems have gone dark, it is hard to be sure what is happening.