The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org. April 23, 2025 State Department Will Eliminate Programs on Climate Crisis, Human Rights and War Crimes --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced a sweeping reorganization of the State Department. The changes will include a rollback of programs focused on Africa, the climate crisis, refugees and human rights, plus cuts to U.S. foreign assistance and the elimination of a body that seeks to investigate war crimes. At least 15% of the State Department's U.S.-based staff will be fired. This is State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce. Tammy Bruce: "We must make the State Department great again. In its current form, the department is bloated, bureaucratic and unable to perform its essential diplomatic mission in this new era of great power competition. … The sprawling bureaucracy created a system more beholden to radical political ideology than advancing America's core national interests." .