| Meanwhile, the impact of the snap freeze has reverberated well beyond the United States — including among investigative journalism organizations.
"There is total chaos about what [the freeze] means," Rawan Damen, the director of Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism, which received U.S. foreign assistance, told ICIJ. "Nobody knows what's happening, nobody is allowed to speak to anybody."
The U.S. allocated $268 million in 2025 to support independent media and the free flow of information and, in previous years, has provided funding to hundreds of non-state news outlets and thousands of journalists. Many also rely indirectly on USAID and State Department support via groups such as the National Endowment for Democracy. This year, State Department assistance accounted for roughly 8.6% of ICIJ's budget.
"We are operating at a time when investigative journalism has never been more important, or more challenged," said Gerard Ryle, ICIJ's executive director. "[Cross-border journalism] will play an even bigger role in protecting the public interest going forward because no one country can stop it." Read more here.
US DITCHES TAX DEALS
Tax justice advocates are cautiously optimistic about the Trump administration's withdrawal from the OECD's global minimum tax deal and U.N. negotiations for a long-awaited tax convention. They argue it could clear the way for other countries to move forward. "While previous US presidents finessed a double game, promising to cooperate on tax but never doing so, Trump has clumsily given the game away," said Alex Cobham of the Tax Justice Network.
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ICIJ's digital editor
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