Devastating

As Europe’s leading donor countries slash budgets, the result could be more than 11.5m preventable deaths, report suggestsCuts to foreign aid budgets by the UK, France and Germany could contribute to more than 11.5 million preventable deaths by the end of the decade, according to a new report, which warns that Europe is abandoning its role as a pillar of global health and development.Three separate studies within the report reveal the extent to which the nations have slashed their foreign aid budgets, and illustrate the impact worldwide. UK official development assistance (ODA) spending is projected to fall by 45% between 2020 and 2026, Germany’s by 37% between 2023 and 2026, and France’s by 30% over the same period, according to the research.This report was a collaboration with European newspapers El Pais and Le Monde Continue reading...

As Missouri asks voters whether to eliminate tax, experts say claims it will grow businesses and create jobs aren’t trueHannah Rejali, 34, lived through the failed so-called “Kansas Experiment” in the 2010s, when the Republican governor cut the state’s income tax to try to give a “shot of adrenaline” to its economy but instead left the state with a $900m budget shortfall.That meant, for example, that in 2015, at least eight school districts ended their academic year early. Continue reading...

• The Supreme Court has struck down key provisions of the Voting Rights Act, eliminating federal oversight requirements that previously protected minority voting rights. • Republican-controlled states are moving swiftly to redraw congressional maps in response, with Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, and Mississippi legislators calling special sessions to adjust districts in their favor. • President Trump personally urged Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to redraw the state's map to give Republicans one additional seat, while Alabama seeks to eliminate one of the state's two Democratic-held districts.

Guardian readers describe how their lives have been upended by cost hikes stemming from Trump’s Iran warWith the US and Israel’s war on Iran now in its seventh week, with a fragile ceasefire in place since earlier this month, Americans are continuing to feel the effects at the pump as global fuel prices rise.For several readers who spoke to the Guardian, the impact has forced difficult trade-offs – from accessing essential medicines and groceries to facing the brink of homelessness amid an already rising cost of living. Continue reading...