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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Kat Lay, Global health correspondent

Obama and Bush call Trump’s USAID closure a ‘travesty’ as report warns of 14 million extra deaths

Barack Obama speaking at a conference
In the recorded message, Barack Obama said dismantling the agency was ‘a colossal mistake’. Photograph: Erin Hooley/AP

Barack Obama and George W Bush have criticised the closure of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), as a study warned it could result in “a staggering number” of avoidable deaths – more than 14 million over five years.

The former US presidents made rare public criticisms of the Trump administration as they took part in a video farewell for USAID staffers on Monday on its last day as an independent organisation.

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