From WNYC Studios, I'm Brian Lehrer.

This is my daily politics podcast.

It's Tuesday, June 17th.

Now we will ask the question, are people dying as a result of President Trump's foreign aid cuts? And if so, can we know

or estimate how many will focus mainly on one foreign aid program that you may be familiar with?

That program created in 2003 under President George W. Bush is known as the U.S. President's

emergency plan for AIDS relief or PEPFAR. For decades, it provided

life-saving treatment and preventive care for people around the world living with the disease

or at risk of the disease. In March, New York Times columnist Nicholas Christoph

worked with experts at the Center for Global Development to try and calculate how many lives are

at risk. They estimated that within a year, 1,650,000 people could die without American foreign

aid for HIV prevention and treatment. So now we'll take a look at how countries that suffer

high rates of HIV and AIDS are

coping now that USAID funding has dried up for PEPFAR and how local governments, especially,

especially in places like Eswatini and Losoto, are attempting to figure out solutions. Also,

some of the politics that could wind up in some of that funding being restored.

Joining us for this are John Cohen, senior correspondent with Medical Journal Science, and on how

the cuts have impacted her organization is Dr. Wafa El-Sauder, director of ICAP at Columbia University. IACP's goals

are to expand access to HIV prevention care and treatment services globally. She's also a

professor of epidemiology and medicine at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health,

Executive Vice President of Columbia Global,

and lead of the New York City Preparedness and Response Institute.

...