As recently as 2017, 60% of USAID funds went to just 25 recipients. Samantha Power is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and former ambassador to the United Nations. She says that aid agencies could save 32 cents of each dollar if they used local intermediaries rather than these massive international ones.
Largely thanks to young, liberal citizens, a reformist third party won the most seats in Thailand’s general election. But a powerful army and influential incumbents could look to prevent its leader, Pita Limjaroenrat, taking charge. Bureaucracy is getting in the way of America’s international aid programme. And, with the help of DNA sequencing, a new ocean survey is on the hunt for 100,000 new species.
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