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US cancels $39 million in aid for Nepal’s federalism and biodiversity projects
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</div><div style="position: relative;" class="subscribe--wrapperx"><section class="story-section"><p>The US government has cancelled $39 million in aid allocated for Nepal’s federalism and biodiversity conservation projects.</p><p>The funding included $20 million for fiscal federalism and $19 million for biodiversity conservation, the US Department of Government Efficiency said in a <a href="https://x.com/DOGE/status/1890849405932077378">post on X</a>.</p><p>US taxpayer dollars were going to be spent on the following items, all of which have been cancelled, the department said, listing the projects of different countries, including Nepal.</p><p>The move affects several countries, including Cambodia, Bangladesh, Serbia, and India, with millions of dollars withdrawn from initiatives related to governance, democracy promotion, and social development.</p><p>An earlier executive order of US President Donald Trump to pause for review all American assistance funded by or through the State Department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) affected various projects run by the government in partnership with USAID.</p><p>Moreover, as many as 300 NGOs, consultancies, and nonprofits that have been receiving aid and financial assistance directly from the agency will be affected for at least three months.</p></p> </section></div><div class="clearfix"></div><hr /><script data-cfasync="false" src="/cdn-cgi/scripts/5c5dd728/cloudflare-static/email-decode.min.js"></script><script async src="https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-5855301837617098"crossorigin="anonymous"></script><ins class="adsbygoogle"style="display:block"data-ad-client="ca-pub-5855301837617098"data-ad-slot="3540497678"data-ad-format="auto"data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins><script>(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});</script> <div class="row news--related"><div class="col-sm-12"><h4 class=" title--line__red">Related News</h4></div><div 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