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Did USAID spend millions to make Zelenskyy Time 'Person of the Year'?

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Did USAID spend millions to make Zelenskyy Time 'Person of the Year'?

USAID has become a significant target for false claims since Trump reentered the White House, and scrutiny of the US’s support of Ukraine has intensified.

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A false video is being shared widely on social media alleging that the US paid $4 million (€3.8 million) to Time Magazine to name Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy its “Person of the Year” in 2022.

The video is often posted with captions saying that the previous US government under President Joe Biden used taxpayer money to “brainwash” citizens and “bribe the media.”

Others say that this means you can’t trust Western media because you can supposedly buy Time’s front cover “for the right price.”

The video itself says that since starting its work, President Donald Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency, headed by Elon Musk, has discovered “huge amounts of money wasted by the government.”

In addition to the claims about Zelenskyy, the video mentions that USAID — the US’ international aid agency — gave more than $8 million to Politico, funded thousands of journalists, and siphoned off money to the Democratic Party.

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The video uses the New York Post’s logo to suggest that the claims come from there, but a search of the American news outlet’s website shows that no such news story exists.  

EuroVerify reached out to New York Post but hasn’t received a response as of the time of this fact check.

We can also check the handily-named website USAspending.gov, which doesn’t contain any details of payments to Time Magazine or Salesforce — the company founded by Time owner Marc Benioff.

Time named Zelenskyy and the Spirit of Ukraine as its Person of the Year in 2022, the year that Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It wrote at length about its rationale for doing so at the time.  

USAID: a breeding ground for misinformation

USAID has become a significant target for false claims since Trump reentered the White House, and scrutiny of the US’s support of Ukraine has intensified.

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The claims about $8 million for Politico for example are incorrect, because records show that USAID only paid $44,000 in subscription fees in 2023 and 2024, with additional payments coming from other government entities.

Politico also previously said in a statement to readers from CEO Goli Sheikholeslami and Editor-in-Chief John Harris that it is not getting a government subsidy.

Other media outlets have also been targeted by USAID-based misinformation: the BBC, for example, was said to have received approximately $3.2 million during the 2023-2024 financial year.

But that money didn’t go to its news operation — it went to BBC Media Action, an international charity that is “part of the BBC family”, but editorially and financially separate from BBC News, the charity said in a statement. It accounted for about 8% of BBC Media Action’s budget that year.

“We follow the BBC’s editorial standards and values in our support for public interest media,” reads the statement. “However, all of our funding goes to our own projects. These are completely separate from the journalism of BBC News. We have no influence over the editorial decision-making of BBC News. The BBC in the UK is mostly funded by a TV Licence fee.”

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The BBC — not including BBC Media Action, which is a separate entity — also earns income from the organisation’s commercial subsidiaries.

The Associated Press was also among the media outlets said to receive USAID funding. Although the news wire has been paid $37.5 million by other government agencies since 2008, none of that came from USAID, according to federal government statistics.

AP spokeswoman Lauren Easton said that “the US government has long been an AP customer — through both Democratic and Republican administrations. It licenses AP’s nonpartisan journalism, just like thousands of news outlets and customers around the world. It’s quite common for governments to have contracts with news organisations for their content.”

It’s not just the media being targeted: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said to reporters in February that USAID had spent “$1.5 million to advance DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) in Serbia’s workplaces; $70,000 for the production of a DEI musical in Ireland; $47,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia, $32,000 for a transgender comic book in Peru.”

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The claims quickly spread widely on social media throughout the week, but only the grant to a Serbian organisation called Grupa Izadji was awarded by USAID. Its stated aim is to “to advance diversity, equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities.”

The rest were awarded by the State Department’s Office of the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs.

In 2022, it granted $70,884 to an Irish company for “a live musical event to promote the US and Irish shared values of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.”

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A grant for $25,000 was awarded in 2021 to a university in Colombia “to raise awareness and increase the transgender representation” through the production of an opera, with an additional $22,020 coming from non-federal funding.

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Another $32,000 awarded in 2022 to a Peruvian organisation funded “a tailored-made comic, featuring an LGBTQ+ hero to address social and mental health issues.”

Experts told AP that it made sense that these programmes were funded by the under secretary’s office, because they’re supposed to reflect values of the US, such as diversity and democracy, and the friendship between the countries.

As recent global events force the spotlight on how much money Europe and the US send abroad, it’s crucial that the public is correctly informed.

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Iran closes Strait of Hormuz over ceasefire violations

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Iran closes Strait of Hormuz over ceasefire violations
Iran’s top joint military command, ​Khatam al-Anbiya Central ‌Headquarters, said on Saturday that the Strait ​of Hormuz would ​be closed to vessel ⁠traffic, citing ​alleged violations of a ​ceasefire agreement by the U.S. and Israel, Iran’s ​Mehr state ​news agency reported.
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Keir Starmer reportedly considering stepping down as PM and could announce timetable for departure

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Keir Starmer reportedly considering stepping down as PM and could announce timetable for departure

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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is reportedly considering stepping down and could announce a timetable for his departure as early as Monday, according to a report published Saturday.

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Britain’s Observer newspaper reported that Starmer was discussing his future with his wife at his Chequers country residence before making a final decision.

The outlet reported that senior Labour Party figures expect a statement addressing his future as early as next week.

A government source told Reuters that Starmer remains focused on governing and pointed to previous comments in which he vowed to remain in office.

AS EPSTEIN-LINKED APPOINTMENT SPARKS BACKLASH, UK PM STARMER FACES PARTY REVOLT AMID RESIGNATION CALLS

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer awaits Switzerland’s Federal President Guy Parmelin on the sidelines of the G7 summit, in Evian-les-Bains, France, Tuesday. (Isabel Infantes/Pool Reuters via AP)

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Fox News Digital has reached out to the prime minister’s office for comment.

Pressure on Starmer has been building for months amid growing dissatisfaction within his party and concerns over the government’s handling of the economy and cost-of-living issues.

The political threat to Starmer intensified Friday after rival Andy Burnham won a seat in Parliament, positioning him to mount a formal leadership challenge.

LABOUR MP PUTS CABINET ‘ON NOTICE,’ THREATENS TO TRIGGER LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE AGAINST STARMER BY MONDAY

Britain’s Labour party candidate Andy Burnham speaks to supporters after the Makerfield by-election in Ashton in Makerfield, England, Friday. (Jon Super/AP)

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Starmer congratulated Burnham following the victory, writing on X that voters, “chose Labour’s campaign of hope and optimism over division and hate.”

When asked about Burnham’s apparent ambitions to replace him, Starmer insisted he intends to remain in office.

“I’ve said repeatedly I’m not going to walk away from that,” Starmer said.

UK’S STARMER JUGGLES TROUBLE AT HOME AS HE WALKS GEOPOLITICAL TIGHTROPE WITH TRUMP

Sir Keir Starmer is battling to save his position and refusing to stand aside despite dozens of Labout MP’s demanding he resigns. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)

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Starmer has led the Labour Party since 2020 and became prime minister in 2024.

Calls for his resignation intensified last month, with more than 100 Labour lawmakers publicly urging him to step aside or set out a timetable for his departure. Several parliamentary aides also resigned in protest.

The internal revolt followed a series of disappointing local election results for Labour, which lost hundreds of council seats across England, surrendered long-held ground in Wales and fell behind political rivals in Scotland.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks a news conference at Downing Street in London, March 5. (Tolga Akmen/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images, File)

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Starmer’s popularity has also declined amid a persistently high cost of living, sluggish economic growth and criticism over his acceptance of gifts from wealthy donors.

Fox News Digital’s James Cirrone and Emma Bussey, and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Trump vows Iran will not charge Strait of Hormuz tolls, but says US might

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Trump vows Iran will not charge Strait of Hormuz tolls, but says US might

United States President Donald Trump has pledged there will be no tolls for passage through the Strait of Hormuz, unless they are collected by his own country.

Trump’s statement, made in a Saturday afternoon post on Truth Social, is the latest sign that a recently signed memorandum of understanding (MOU) may be unravelling.

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“There will be NO TOLLS in the Hormuz Strait for 60 days during the Cease Fire Period, and there will be NO TOLLS after the 60 day period has expired,” Trump wrote, “unless they are imposed by and for the United States of America.”

Since the US and Israel launched a war against Iran on February 28, Iran has successfully used the Strait of Hormuz as a pressure point, closing the strategic waterway to traffic.

But under the terms of Wednesday’s ceasefire memorandum, the strait is supposed to reopen for an interim period of 60 days. During that time, Iran is barred from charging vessels for passage.

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On Saturday, however, Iran’s joint military command said it had closed the Strait of Hormuz, citing a “clear breach” of the memorandum’s commitments.

US Central Command (CENTCOM), the agency that oversees military operations in the region, denied that report and maintained that the traffic continues to flow through the waterway.

The Strait of Hormuz has long been a flashpoint in the conflict between the US and Iran. Nearly 20 percent of the world’s oil and natural gas is transported through the strait, as well as about 30 percent of the global fertiliser trade.

Closure of the strait has caused global fuel costs to soar and has tested agricultural sectors across the world.

Trump had responded to Iran’s chokehold over the strait by imposing a US naval blockade on Iran’s ports in the region.

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But that naval blockade was lifted under the terms of Wednesday’s memorandum. The deal also paused fighting on all fronts in the regional conflict, including in Lebanon.

The memorandum, though, was not intended as a long-term deal. It serves as a launching point for negotiations on key issues, including the future of Iran’s nuclear programme.

Several points of divergence also went unaddressed in the memorandum. Nowhere does the memo say that future tolls cannot be collected from the strait after the 60-day period expires.

Before the war, there was no charge for passage through the strait. Trump himself said in an interview with The New York Times that the waterway should remain “permanently toll-free”.

But he appeared to reverse course in Saturday’s post, once again floating the possibility that the US could extract tolls in the strait, while barring Iran from doing so.

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No fees should be levied, Trump wrote, “unless they are imposed by and for the United States of America, should the deal not be completed”.

He explained that such a charge would compensate the US “for services rendered as the Guardian Angel to the countries of the Middle East for purposes of both past, present, and future reimbursement of costs”.

Trump used similar language in his New York Times interview earlier this week, floating the US becoming “the guardian of the Middle East” in exchange for 20 percent of its revenue.

Saturday’s post is not the first time Trump has mused about the US imposing tolls in the strait, either.

In April, for instance, he discussed the idea with reporters, saying, “What about us charging tolls? I’d rather do that than let them have them. Why shouldn’t we? We’re the winner. We won.”

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There has been no indication that Trump’s plans have been officially presented to countries in the region, many of whom have struck a careful balance in their dealings with both the US and Iran during the war.

Iranian officials, meanwhile, have repeatedly said they will not rule out imposing tolls in the strait, framing the issue as a matter of sovereignty and regional negotiation. The strait sits between Iran and Oman.

Further discussions are expected on the matter in the coming weeks.

But such negotiations have been thrown into jeopardy amid ongoing Israeli military operations in Lebanon, which threaten to violate Wednesday’s ceasefire memorandum.

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Iran claimed that Saturday’s closure of the strait was a result of new Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon, which killed dozens of people after the ceasefire was announced.

Iranian officials have also said that any upcoming talks should focus on proper implementation of the initial memorandum, and that the 60-day negotiating period stipulated in Wednesday’s deal would begin after that was settled.

Pakistan, a top mediator between the US and Iran, has said that follow-up talks are set to begin in Switzerland on Sunday.

Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that an Iranian delegation, led by parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, has already arrived for the negotiations.

On the US side, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Vice President JD Vance are expected to attend.

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Vance departed for Switzerland late Saturday.

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