Protesters in D.C. called attention to the Trump administration’s refusal to disburse money, even though Congress appropriated it.

Yesterday, protesters laid on the ground in a busy intersection near the White House to call attention to the Trump administration’s refusal to pay for HIV prevention and care.

I was there to report for the Guardian US, and I wrote about it here.

Congress is back in session now, and most of the funds will disappear if they’re not spent by the end of the month.

“Russ Vought is defying the will of Congress. He’s breaking the law,” said Asia Russell, executive director of Health Gap and one of the protest organizers, calling the impediments on funds “illegal and unprecedented.”

“I sincerely believe that they picked foreign aid on purpose as what they thought would be a soft target to try out shredding these norms,” Russell said.

–Protesters demand release of HIV funds ‘illegally’ withheld by Trump, The Guardian

An estimated 450,000 people have died because of the abrupt cuts to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

In Nairobi, for example, two patients died after their doctors were ordered to stop working during the USAID pause. The patients had opportunistic infections because of HIV/AIDS; when they could no longer receive antibiotics for the infections, they died.

“The administration continues to deny that dismantling assistance for health and public health systems costs lives,” said Atul Gawande, the former assistant administrator for global health at USAID. “They believe these lives won’t matter to anybody.

“Tell me: will you bear witness?” he asked the crowd.

–Protesters demand release of HIV funds ‘illegally’ withheld by Trump, The Guardian

The protest came at a particularly fraught moment in Washington, D.C., which for several weeks has been occupied by local and out-of-state National Guardsmen as well as federal agents.

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I’ve been reporting on PEPFAR for years now. Here are some of the stories I’ve written about the program, which has saved about 26 million lives, as well as other cuts to USAID:

• He led George W. Bush’s PEPFAR program to stop AIDS. Now he fears for its future, NPR
• Dozens of USAID contracts were canceled last weekend. Here’s what happened, NPR
• What kind of support is the U.S. offering in the wake of the Myanmar quake? NPR
• Rubio announces that 83% of USAID contracts will be canceled, NPR
• Trump officials will put 4,700 USAID employees on leave and eliminate 1,600 jobs, NPR
• What is happening with PEPFAR? It depends on whom you ask, NPR
• Why is the Trump administration targeting USAID?, NPR
• Thousands protest USAid workers being recalled from abroad and put on leave, The Guardian
• Why does Musk want USAID ‘to die’? And why did its website disappear?, NPR
• Trump’s ‘stop-work’ order for PEPFAR cuts off anti-HIV drugs for patients, NPR; this reporting also aired on Morning Edition
• Trump pauses funding for anti-HIV program that prevented 26 million AIDS deaths, NPR
• George W. Bush’s anti-HIV program is hailed as ‘amazing’ — and still crucial at 20, NPR

Have a tip or suggestion for what I should cover? Get in touch securely via email (melodyschreiber@pm.me) or Signal (melodyschreiber.06).