US budget cuts plan

THE White House has proposed gutting the United States State Department's budget by almost 50%, closing a number of overseas diplomatic missions, and eliminating funding for nearly all international organisations - including the United Nations, many of its agencies, and for Nato headquarters, officials have said.

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The proposal from the US Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which was presented to the State Department last week and is still in a highly preliminary phase, is not expected to pass muster with either the department's leadership or Congress, which will ultimately be asked to vote on the entire US federal budget in the coming months.

Sources in Washington say it must still go through several rounds of review before it even gets to legislators, who in the past have amended and even rejected White House budget requests.