In The News

Divisions Within Afghanistan’s Government Reach New Crisis Point

Pamela Constable December 1, 2016
Impeachment of seven Afghan cabinet ministers demonstrates the fragility of Afghanistan’s new democratic institutions. President Ashraf Ghani confronts public criticism, and lawmakers accuse each other of abusing power and accomplishing little. Afghanistan’s ethnic divisions complicate the debate over governance. This instability follows more than a decade of US involvement in the country, and 10...

Emails Reveal How Foundation Donors Got Access to Clinton and Aides at State Department

Rosalind S. Helderman, Spencer S. Hsu and Tom Hamburger August 23, 2016
The Clinton Foundation’s website, transparent about the source of its donations, lists names of major foreign donors including those from Australia, Saudi Arabia and Sweden. The website also insists that “Secretary Clinton was not involved in the work of the Foundation when she was serving as Secretary of State.” A release of an aide’s emails suggest that foundation donors and representatives did...

Misplaced Charity

June 17, 2016
The aim of foreign aid is to alleviate poverty, while improving economies, services and governance and minimizing conflict. “Official development aid, which includes grants, loans, technical advice and debt forgiveness, is worth about $130 billion a year,” explains the Economist. Such aid transformed Taiwan and South Korea, but “can also burden weak bureaucracies, distort markets, prop up...

Madaya Syria: Aid Convoy Sets Off for Besieged Town

January 11, 2016
Small towns in rural Syria are blocked from basic supplies due to a protracted civil war and blockades: “only 10% of the UN's requests to deliver aid to people to in besieged and hard-to-reach areas were granted,” reports BBC News. “Blockades have been a feature of Syria's civil war but the plight of Madaya has drawn international attention, partly due to images emerging of severely...

Tax Can End Africa’s Aid Dependency

Benjamin Fox December 24, 2015
Companies seek to maximize profits by reducing tax payments, relocating if necessary. Tax avoidance and illegal financial flows cost Africa $50 billion per year, suggests one report. “Legislation in Europe and North America is now in force requiring extractive sector firms to publish country-by-country reports of all payments they make to governments, a system that is gradually being expanded to...

Taliban Calls for Aid in Areas Ravaged by Quake

Mirwais Harooni and Ashraf Hamid October 27, 2015
A 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck a remote parts of northeastern Afghanistan and Pakistan, leaving at least 300 dead with more than 4000 homes and compounds destroyed. Complicating search and rescue are aftershocks, harsh winter weather, mountainous terrain, Afghanistan’s heavy dependence on foreign aid combined with threats of attacks by extremist groups who resent Western influences. “But the...

Among the Lucky Few: Syrian Family Rebuilds in America's Heartland

Ari Shapiro October 21, 2015
Toledo, Ohio, is among the communities doing its best to welcome refugees. “Fewer than 2,000 Syrians have come to the U.S., though the war has displaced more than 12 million since it began in 2011,” reports Ari Shapiro for NPR. He describes the experiences of one of eight families settling in Toledo with the help of diverse faith groups: A Christian group provides language lessons and day care,...