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The legal battle over whether U.S. President Donald Trump can ignore the wishes of Congress on government spending is heading to the Supreme Court — and it’s centered around foreign aid.
Also in today’s edition: Artificial intelligence is giving expectant mothers an unexpected gift.
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Supreme showdown
In a long-awaited yet rapidly developing case, the lawsuit over Trump’s spending of — or rather refusal to spend — U.S. foreign assistance funds has made its way to the Supreme Court, with broad implications over who controls the country’s power of the purse — the White House or Congress.
The administration on Monday asked the high court to intervene and rule in favor of its bid to withhold billions of dollars in foreign aid that have already been appropriated by Congress after a lower court compelled it to spend those funds.
It’s all part of Trump administration’s push to defy Congress’ spending allocations and yank funding it disagrees with. Over the summer, his administration secured congressional approval of a rescissions package to claw back roughly $8 billion in foreign aid funds.
More recently, the administration introduced a “pocket rescission” to cancel another $5 billion in foreign assistance. Unlike a regular rescissions package, however, this particular maneuver is designed to submit the package so close to the end of the fiscal year that the funds may expire regardless of whether Congress votes for or against the administration’s request.
Meanwhile, in the back-and-forth legal tussle, Judge Amir Ali of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., issued an injunction ordering the government to pay for work already done by aid organizations and instructed it to obligate congressionally approved foreign assistance funds by Sept. 30.
That didn’t sit well with the White House, which argued that complying with the lower court order would be “untenable” given the tight timelines involved as the legal process plays out, my colleague Adva Saldinger writes.
So it requested that a district court panel issue a stay, or pause, on Ali’s injunction pending appeal, which the appeals court rejected on Friday. That led the administration to request a stay from the Supreme Court on Monday.
The aid organizations also filed their opposition to the stay with the Supreme Court on Monday, arguing that the government will not suffer irreparable harm while the court considers the issue, but that an administrative stay could result in the government choosing not to spend those billions of dollars Congress has already approved.
A decision could come at any time.
Read: US foreign aid legal showdown heads to the Supreme Court
AI picture of health
It’s both a medically necessary and deeply personal part of the pregnancy journey: An ultrasound that offers a picture of how a baby is progressing.
But in low-income countries, this lifesaving technology remains out of reach for millions, leading to preventable maternal and infant deaths, Devex contributor Sophie Edwards writes. In fact, there are fewer than two radiologists per 1 million people in low-income countries, compared to one per 10,000 in wealthier nations.
Now, a pioneering AI-enabled device — BabyChecker — could change that.
Developed by the Dutch social enterprise Delft Imaging, BabyChecker combines a handheld ultrasound probe that can deliver point-of-care ultrasound, or POCUS, with a smartphone app. This AI-driven system allows nonspecialist health workers, such as midwives or community health workers, to perform scans without needing a sonographer. The AI also reduces scan time from 45 minutes to just 2 minutes.
The Gates Foundation has been a key backer of AI-powered ultrasound technology. Ari Moskowitz, deputy director of medical devices and AI at the foundation, described BabyChecker as a “great equalizer.”
“The beauty of AI ultrasound is that you can take something which was previously specialized, expensive, and diagnostic and put it in the hands of non-specialists, enabling them to do critical things in a quick and agile fashion,” Moskowitz tells Sophie.
Parents also get the chance to see their baby on a smartphone app, which can generate an ultrasound image after the scan.
Challenges remain, such as cost and technological limitations, although one of the most advanced pilots, held in Kisumu County, Kenya, is showing promising results. BabyChecker is also being trialed in Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Zambia.
Read: Could AI ultrasounds be the ‘great equalizer’ for maternal health?
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Climate of hope
Singing, dancing, and a strong dose of optimism opened the second African Climate Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, yesterday, my colleague Ayenat Mersie tells me. The fanfare gave way to business in Ethiopia’s brand-new conference center — inaugurated in March and still unmistakably fresh, with tape clinging to fixtures and paint splattered on windows as the country makes its bid to join the global conference circuit. Some 25,000 people registered, though the final turnout was unclear.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed set the tone: “We are not here to negotiate our survival. We are here to design the world’s next climate economy. If we make the right choices now, Africa can be the first continent to industrialize without destroying its ecosystems.”
That African vision came with fresh African money. A coalition of institutions — including the African Development Bank, Afreximbank, Africa50, Africa Finance Corporation, KCB Group, Equity Bank, Stanbic, Ecobank, and the AfCFTA Secretariat — pledged $100 billion in new commitments under the Africa Green Industrialisation Initiative. Launched in 2023, the initiative aims to attract more global investment and build renewable-powered industrial clusters in areas such as critical minerals and battery manufacturing.
But questions remain about the quality of financing. At a session on the “Baku to Belém Roadmap” — launched at last year’s U.N. Climate Change Conference to chart how low- and middle-income countries can mobilize $1.3 trillion in climate finance — attendees raised the burning question of how to ensure climate finance doesn’t simply mean more debt. COP30 Executive Director Ana Toni said she welcomed further submissions from the international community before the Sept. 10 deadline, especially on adaptation finance, where she noted ideas have been lacking.
Kenyan President William Ruto put it bluntly, calling current repayment pressures a form of neocolonialism: “Escalating repayments forced governments to delay investments, fueling greater climate losses, and driving us deeper into debt,” he said, noting that “between 2024 and 2030, debt service will average 137% of Africa’s climate finance needs.”
Related: Cities in the global south demand climate finance ahead of COP30
Islands of resilience
Meanwhile, at the Pacific Islands Forum held at the Solomon Islands’ capital of Honiara this week, leaders will sign a long-awaited treaty to establish the Pacific Resilience Facility, or PRF — a regional climate fund more than a decade in the making.
Unlike the Green Climate Fund, which funds large-scale projects, the PRF will channel small-scale community grants for adaptation, disaster preparedness, and resilience. “PRF was really created for communities, and the small projects that communities need that are often under-served by bigger global climate finance funds,” said Finau Soqo, the PRF’s general manager, in an interview with Islands Business. “Another special thing about the PRF is that it’s ours. It belongs to the Pacific. It’s co-designed by the Pacific.”
The establishment of the facility is particularly salient as Australia continues to vie to be the host of COP31. Despite plans to announce the host this past June, the final decision is still in limbo.
The challenge now for PRF is raising $500 million by 2026. As Soqo put it, “whether we get COP31 or not, we still have to raise $USD500 million. ... That’s why we need strong momentum this year.”
Related: Women are fighting climate change in the south Pacific, but need money
In other news
The one-day summit on finding a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict may move from the U.N. headquarters in New York to Geneva, amid the U.S. refusal to grant visas to the Palestinian delegation. [The Guardian]
The World Bank has approved a $6 billion hydroelectric project in Mozambique. [The Independent]
With only a few weeks until COP30, EU member states still could not agree on their nationally determined contributions to reach the goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. [The Guardian]
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About the author
Anna Gawel
Anna Gawel is the Managing Editor of Devex. She previously worked as the managing editor of The Washington Diplomat, the flagship publication of D.C.’s diplomatic community. She’s had hundreds of articles published on world affairs, U.S. foreign policy, politics, security, trade, travel and the arts on topics ranging from the impact of State Department budget cuts to Caribbean efforts to fight climate change. She was also a broadcast producer and digital editor at WTOP News and host of the Global 360 podcast. She holds a journalism degree from the University of Maryland in College Park.
