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'UN80 Initiative' appears to show world body's panic over possible DOGE-like cuts

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'UN80 Initiative' appears to show world body's panic over possible DOGE-like cuts

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the “UN80 Initiative” on Wednesday as a project in honor of the international body’s 80th anniversary. On paper, the initiative aims to improve efficiency, review the implementation of mandates and restructure the system. However, several U.N. critics claim that this is the international body’s way of bracing for potential U.S. spending cuts.

“This goes far beyond the technical. Budgets at the United Nations are not just numbers on a balance sheet — they are a matter of life and death for millions around the world,” Secretary-General Guterres told reporters on Wednesday.

He denied that the UN80 Initiative is a “version of DOGE” and said it was not a response to possible U.S. cuts.

Head of the organization DOGE-UN Hugh Dugan dismissed the UN80 Initiative as an “effort to send a great big Hallmark greeting card to the world.”

“He’s had 8 to 10 years of opportunity to start what he’s calling for now, and there is not enough time in his remaining 18 months or 19 months in office that could provide any reason to think that his team is going to pivot and set the world on fire in ways that would be a footrace with whatever Elon Musk is doing,” Dugan told Fox News Digital.

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United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the “UN80 Initiative” on Wednesday as a project in honor of the international body’s 80th anniversary. (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)

UN PREPPING FOR SPENDING CUTS AS DOGE ROOTS OUT WASTE IN US, INTERNAL DOCS SHOW

When pressed by Fox News Digital during the midday briefing if UN80 was meant as a response to U.S. cuts and if the secretary-general was worried about Elon Musk, the Secretary-General spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric referred to the comments the secretary-general made earlier in the day.

Anne Bayefsky, Director, Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and President, Human Rights Voices, responded to the secretary-general’s comments. She slammed the U.N. as a “bloated, corrupt and profoundly anti-American and anti-Jewish institution.”

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is expected to address the U.N.’s financial situation next month in a virtual town hall.  (Brendan McDermid/Reuters)

UN CHIEF SOUNDS THE ALARM AMID FEARS OVER POSSIBLE DOGE-INSPIRED CUTS AFTER TRUMP’S ORDER

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“Every time a U.S. government begins to try to hold it to account or use the power of the purse to change this nonsensical equation, the U.N. trots out a ‘reform’ fake out and America rolls over. President Trump and DOGE can change this perverse state of affairs,” Bayefsky told Fox News Digital.

“Obviously, Guterres is running scared and deeply concerned that his total nonsense about being engaged in ‘an ambitious reform agenda’ will be called out,” she added.

United Nations facade

Internal U.N. documents on its “liquidity crisis” recently obtained by Fox News Digital appeared to show that the intuition was bracing itself for possible DOGE-related spending cuts. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Internal U.N. documents on its “liquidity crisis” recently obtained by Fox News Digital appeared to show that the intuition was bracing itself for possible DOGE-related spending cuts.

Despite the U.N. memo stating that cutting back to 80% of allocated funds would potentially harm entities, insiders told Dugan that they do not see any “real cuts” in it.

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Guterres is expected to address the U.N.’s financial situation next month in a virtual town hall. While there was no topic specified in the invitation for the town hall, Dujarric confirmed that finances would be discussed.

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Georgia ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili handed second prison sentence

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Georgia ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili handed second prison sentence

Saakashvili was found guilty of illegal border crossing and given a second prison sentence of four and a half years on Monday, in addition to his existing sentence on charges of abuse of power and embezzlement.

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A Georgian court sentenced former President Mikheil Saakashvili to another prison term on Monday, extending his imprisonment time to 12 and a half years.

Saakashvili, who served as Georgia’s president from 2004-2013, had previously been sentenced on charges of abuse of power and embezzlement that he and his defence have rejected as politically motivated.

Judge Badri Kochlamazashvili sentenced the 57-year-old ex-president to an extra four years and six months on charges of illegal border crossing, adding time to his existing sentence.

Speaking by videoconference, Saakashvili dismissed the verdict as an “absolutely illegal, unjust sentencing of me for crimes I have not committed.”

“They want to annihilate me in prison,” he said. “But no matter what, I will fight till the end,” he vowed.

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According to his lawyer, Beka Basilaia, Monday’s verdict “again showed that Saakashvili is a political prisoner.”

Saakashvili, a controversial reformist

Saakashvili is also accused of repressing demonstrators who claimed that his fervour had turned into dictatorship.

The former president, who led the country in a more pro-Western direction, led the so-called Rose Revolution protests in 2003 that drove his predecessor out of office and enacted a series of ambitious reforms tackling official corruption.

In 2008, he oversaw a brief but intense war with Russia that ended with the humiliating loss of the remaining Georgian bases in two separatist territories.

His reign was brought to an end in the 2012 election when the then newly formed Georgian Dream Party defeated Saakashvili’s United National Movement party.

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Saakashvili left for Ukraine in 2013 and became a citizen. From 2015 to 2016, he governed the southern Odesa region.

However, he was swiftly detained when he returned to Georgia in October 2021 in an attempt to strengthen opposition forces before the national municipal elections.

Georgian Dream accused of influencing verdict

Saakashvili’s lawyer on Monday accused the ruling Georgian Dream of influencing the latest extension of the ex-Georgian leader’s prison term.

“As long as Georgian Dream remains in power, the judiciary is a farce and will make whatever decision it is instructed to,” Basilaia said.

Since 2012, when Saakashvili was ousted from office, the Georgian Dream Party has remained in power and itself has recently been facing criticisms and popular protests on allegations of a crackdown on democratic freedoms.

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The party is also accused of steering the country away from the path toward European Union membership and back into Russia’s sphere of influence.

After going on multiple hunger strikes, Saakashvili is currently being treated at the Vivamedi facility, where he is being monitored for a number of chronic illnesses, according to the clinic.

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Thousands gather in Rio de Janeiro to demonstrate support for Bolsonaro

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Thousands gather in Rio de Janeiro to demonstrate support for Bolsonaro
Thousands of people gathered on Copacabana Beach on Sunday in a show of support for former President Jair Bolsonaro, who faces charges of leading a plot to topple the government and undermine Brazil’s democracy after he lost a 2022 election.
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US military shoots down Houthi drones as Trump's strikes against terrorist group continue

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US military shoots down Houthi drones as Trump's strikes against terrorist group continue

U.S. warships have shot down roughly a dozen Houthi drones since President Donald Trump launched airstrikes against the terrorist organization on Saturday, Fox News has learned.

A senior defense official told Fox News of the developments on Sunday. The drones were aimed at the U.S. Navy’s Truman Carrier Strike Group, and were shot down “well before” they posed a serious threat, the official added.

The latest military action came after nearly a year and a half of attacks from Houthis, both on commercial merchant vessels and U.S. military ships. In a Truth Social post on Saturday, Trump wrote that he had “ordered the United States Military to launch decisive and powerful Military action against the Houthi terrorists in Yemen.”

“It has been over a year since a U.S.-flagged commercial ship safely sailed through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, or the Gulf of Aden,” Trump continued. “The last American Warship to go through the Red Sea, four months ago, was attacked by the Houthis over a dozen times.”

US NAVY SHIPS REPEL ATTACK FROM HOUTHIS IN GULF OF ADEN

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U.S. warships intercepted and shot down around a dozen Houthi drones since President Donald Trump’s airstrikes were launched on Mar. 15. (Getty Images/AP)

Trump wrote that the “relentless assaults have cost the U.S. and World Economy many BILLIONS of Dollars while, at the same time, putting innocent lives at risk.”

“To all Houthi terrorists, YOUR TIME IS UP, AND YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP, STARTING TODAY. IF THEY DON’T, HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!” his post concluded.

TRUMP RE-DESIGNATES IRANIAN-BACKED HOUTHIS AS TERRORISTS: ‘THREATEN[S] SECURITY OF AMERICAN CIVILIANS’

U.S. President Donald Trump speaking at a meeting

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on February 26, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Trump re-designated the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) in January. His first administration had named the Houthis as an FTO, but the Biden administration later reversed the move.

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On Sunday, the White House released photos of Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz monitoring the strikes.

Trump, in golf attire, monitoring airstrikes

President Trump is taking action against the Houthis to defend U.S. shipping assets and deter terrorist threats, the White House posted on X on March 15, 2025. (The White House)

“President Trump is taking action against the Houthis to defend US shipping assets and deter terrorist threats,” the White House wrote on X. “For too long American economic & national threats have been under assault by the Houthis. Not under this presidency.” 

Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.

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