Trump’s demand that US aid workers return home sparks outrage in Washington and anxiety overseas

Trump’s demand that US aid workers return home sparks outrage in Washington and anxiety overseas
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Current and former employees of the USAID and their supporters rally with members of Congress outside the US Capitol on February 05, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images via AFP)
Trump’s demand that US aid workers return home sparks outrage in Washington and anxiety overseas
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People protest outside the USAID building in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 3, 2025, after billionaire Elon Musk, who is heading US President Donald Trump's drive to shrink the federal government, said work is underway to shut down the US foreign aid agency. (REUTERS/File Photo)
Trump’s demand that US aid workers return home sparks outrage in Washington and anxiety overseas
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People protest outside the USAID building in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 3, 2025, after billionaire Elon Musk, who is heading US President Donald Trump's drive to shrink the federal government, said work is underway to shut down the US foreign aid agency. (REUTERS/File Photo)
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Updated 06 February 2025
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Trump’s demand that US aid workers return home sparks outrage in Washington and anxiety overseas

Trump’s demand that US aid workers return home sparks outrage in Washington and anxiety overseas
  • USAID has been one of the agencies hardest hit as the new administration and Musk’s budget-cutting team target federal programs they say are wasteful or not aligned with a conservative agenda
  • Supporters of USAID from both the GOP and Democrats say USAID's work overseas is essential to countering the influence of Russia, China and other adversaries and rivals abroad

WASHINGTON: Frustration boiled over Wednesday among supporters of the United States’ lead aid agency at a Washington rally, and anxious aid workers abroad scrambled to pack up households after the Trump administration abruptly pulled almost all agency staffers off the job and out of the field.
The order issued Tuesday followed 2 1/2 weeks that have seen the Trump administration and teams led by billionaire ally Elon Musk dismantle much of the US Agency for International Development, shutting down a six-decade mission intended to shore up US security by educating children, fighting epidemics and advancing other development abroad.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has been touring Central America on his first visit in office, defended the administration’s broad shutdown of aid funding and other actions while saying, “Our preference would have been to do this in a more orderly fashion.”
But, Rubio said, the administration faced a lack of cooperation in an attempt to review the worth of each agency program. He gave no evidence, and agency staffers deny his and Musk’s claims of obstruction. As a result, Rubio said, the administration would now “work from the bottom up” to determine which US aid and development missions abroad were in the national interest and would be allowed to resume.
“This is not about ending foreign aid. It is about structuring it in a way that furthers the national interest of the United States,” he said in the Guatemalan capital of Guatemala City.
In Washington, Democratic lawmakers and hundreds of others rallied outside the Capitol to protest the fast-moving shutdown of an independent government agency. “This is illegal and this is a coup,” California Democratic Rep. Sara Jacobs cried.
“We are witnessing in real time the most corrupt bargain in American history,” Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen shouted to supporters at the rally, referring to Musk, his support for President Donald Trump and his role in challenging USAID and other targeted agencies.
“Lock him up!” members of the crowd chanted. Addressing Democratic lawmakers, who have promised court battles and other efforts but have been unable to slow the assault on USAID, they said: “Do your job!”
Scott Paul, a director at the Oxfam American humanitarian nonprofit, said the damage already done meant that key parts of the global aid and development system would have to be rebuilt “from scratch.”
Jennifer Kates, senior vice president and director of the global health and HIV policy program at KFF, cited one large organization alone that expects to close up to 1,226 maternal and child-care clinics serving more than 630,000 women.
“The health care system is not one that you just press on and off,” Kates said. If the US shutdown lays off staffers and closes those clinics, “you can’t just say, ‘All right, we’re ready to start again. Let’s go.’”
USAID has been one of the agencies hardest hit as the new administration and Musk’s budget-cutting team target federal programs they say are wasteful or not aligned with a conservative agenda.
US embassies in many of the more than 100 countries where USAID operates convened emergency town hall meetings for the thousands of agency staffers and contractors looking for answers. Embassy officials said they had been given no guidance on what to tell staffers, particularly local hires, about their employment status.
A USAID contractor posted in an often violent region of the Middle East said the shutdown had placed the contractor and the contractor’s family in danger because they were unable to reach the US government for help if needed.
The contractor woke up one morning earlier this week blocked from access to government email and other systems, and an emergency “panic button” app was wiped off the contractor’s smartphone.
“You really do feel cut off from a lifeline,” the contract staffer said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of a Trump administration ban forbidding USAID workers from speaking to people outside their agency.
USAID staffers and families had already faced wrenching decisions as the rumored order loomed, including whether to pull children out of school midyear. Some gave away pet cats and dogs, fearing the administration would not give workers time to complete the paperwork to bring the animals with them.
Despite the administration’s assurances that the US government would bring the agency’s workers safely home as ordered within 30 days, some feared being stranded and left to make their own way back.
Most agency spending has been ordered frozen, and most workers at the Washington headquarters have been taken off the job, making it unclear how the administration will manage and pay for the sudden relocation of thousands of staffers and their families.
The mass removal of thousands of staffers would doom billions of dollars in projects in some 120 countries, including security assistance for Ukraine and other countries, as well as development work for clean water, job training and education, including for schoolgirls under Taliban rule in Afghanistan.
The online notification to USAID workers and contractors said they would be off the job, effective just before midnight Friday, unless deemed essential. Direct hires of the agency overseas got 30 days to return home, the notice said.
The United States is the world’s largest humanitarian donor by far. It spends less than 1 percent of its budget on foreign assistance, a smaller share of its budget than some countries.
Hundreds of millions of dollars of food and medication already delivered by US companies are sitting in ports because of the shutdown.
Health programs like those credited with helping end polio and smallpox epidemics and an acclaimed HIV/AIDS program that saved more than 20 million lives in Africa have stopped. So have programs for monitoring and deploying rapid-response teams for contagious diseases such as Ebola.
South African Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi told Parliament on Wednesday that officials scrambled to meet with US Embassy staff for information after receiving no warning the Trump administration would freeze crucial funding for the world’s biggest national HIV/AIDS program.
South Africa has the world’s highest number of people living with HIV, at around 8 million, and the United States funds around 17 percent of its $2.3 billion-a-year program through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR. The health minister did not say whether US exemptions for lifesaving care affect that work.
Democrats and others say the USAID is enshrined in legislation as an independent agency and cannot be shut down without congressional approval. Supporters of USAID from both political parties say its work overseas is essential to countering the influence of Russia, China and other adversaries and rivals abroad, and to cementing alliances and partnerships.
In Istanbul on Wednesday, Hakan Bilgin sat in the downsized office of his medical-care nonprofit, surrounded by half-unpacked boxes and worried colleagues. Days ago, Doctors of the World Turkiye received an unexpected stop-work order from USAID, forcing them to close 12 field hospitals and lay off over 300 staff members in northern Syria.
“As a medical organization providing lifesaving services, you’re basically saying, ‘Close all the clinics, stop all your doctors, and you’re not providing services to women, children and the elderly,”’ Bilgin said.
 


US arms flow to Ukraine again as the Kremlin mulls a ceasefire proposal

Updated 6 min 21 sec ago
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US arms flow to Ukraine again as the Kremlin mulls a ceasefire proposal

US arms flow to Ukraine again as the Kremlin mulls a ceasefire proposal
The administration’s decision to resume military aid after talks Tuesday with senior Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia marked a sharp shift in its stance
Zelensky said the 30-day ceasefire would allow the sides “to fully prepare a step-by-step plan for ending the war, including security guarantees for Ukraine”

KYIV: US arms deliveries to Ukraine resumed Wednesday, officials said, a day after the Trump administration lifted its suspension of military aid for Kyiv in its fight against Russia’s invasion, and officials awaited the Kremlin’s response to a proposed 30-day ceasefire endorsed by Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it’s important not to “get ahead” of the question of responding to the ceasefire, which was proposed by Washington. He told reporters that Moscow is awaiting “detailed information” from the US and suggested that Russia must get that before it can take a position. The Kremlin has previously opposed anything short of a permanent end to the conflict and has not accepted any concessions.
US President Donald Trump wants to end the three-year war and pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to enter talks. The suspension of US assistance happened days after Zelensky and Trump argued about the conflict in a tense White House meeting. The administration’s decision to resume military aid after talks Tuesday with senior Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia marked a sharp shift in its stance.
Trump said “it’s up to Russia now” as his administration presses Moscow to agree to the ceasefire.
“And hopefully we can get a ceasefire from Russia,” Trump said Wednesday in an extended exchange with reporters during an Oval Office meeting with Micheál Martin, the prime minster of Ireland. “And if we do, I think that would be 80 percent of the way to getting this horrible bloodbath” ended.
The US president again made veiled threats of hitting Russia with new sanctions.
“We can, but I hope it’s not going to be necessary,” Trump said.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who led the American delegation to Saudi Arabia, where Ukraine consented to the US ceasefire proposal, said Washington will pursue “multiple points of contacts” with Russia to see if President Vladimir Putin is ready to negotiate an end to the war. He declined to give details or say what steps might be taken if Putin refuses to engage.
The US hopes to see Russia stop attacks on Ukraine within the next few days as a first step, Rubio said at a refueling stop Wednesday in Shannon, Ireland, on his way to talks in Canada with other Group of Seven leading industrialized nations.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that national security adviser Mike Waltz spoke Wednesday with his Russian counterpart.
She also confirmed that Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, will head to Moscow for talks with Russian officials. She did not say with whom Witkoff planned to meet. A person familiar with the matter said Witkoff is expected to meet with Putin later his week. The person was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Ukraine says ceasefire would allow time for planning end to war
Zelensky said the 30-day ceasefire would allow the sides “to fully prepare a step-by-step plan for ending the war, including security guarantees for Ukraine.”
Technical questions over how to effectively monitor a truce along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line, where small but deadly drones are common, are “very important,” Zelensky told reporters Wednesday in Kyiv.
Arms deliveries to Ukraine have already resumed through a Polish logistics center, the foreign ministers of Ukraine and Poland announced Wednesday. The deliveries go through a NATO and US hub in the eastern Polish city of Rzeszow that’s has been used to ferry Western weapons into neighboring Ukraine about 70 kilometers (45 miles) away.
The American military help is vital for Ukraine’s shorthanded and weary army, which is having a tough time keeping Russia’s bigger military force at bay. For Russia, the American aid spells potentially more difficulty in achieving war aims, and it could make Washington’s peace efforts a tougher sell in Moscow.
The US government has also restored Ukraine’s access to unclassified commercial satellite pictures provided by Maxar Technologies through a program Washington runs, Maxar spokesperson Tomi Maxted told The Associated Press. The images help Ukraine plan attacks, assess their success and monitor Russian movements.
In other developments, officials acknowledged Wednesday that Kyiv no longer has any of the longer-range Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, missiles.
According to a US official and a Ukrainian lawmaker on the country’s defense committee, Ukraine has run out of the ATACMs. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to provide military weapons details.
The US official said the US provided fewer than 40 of those missiles overall and that Ukraine ran out of them in late January. Senior US defense leaders, including the previous Pentagon chief, Lloyd Austin, had made it clear that only a limited number of the ATACMs would be delivered and that the US and NATO allies considered other weapons to be more valuable in the fight.
Russia steps up efforts to regain control of Kursk region
The developments came amid intensifying Russian efforts to push Ukrainian forces out of the Kremlin’s Kursk region that have yielded breakthroughs in recent days, Ukrainian soldiers told AP. The fighting has escalated as ceasefire talks come to a head, with Moscow intent on taking back its territory and Kyiv determined to hold onto it as a bargaining chip in any negotiations.
Ukrainian forces made a daring raid into the Russian region last August in the first foreign occupation of Russian territory since World War II. They have held on despite intense pressure from tens of thousands of Russian and North Korean troops.
Recent fighting reportedly has focused on the Kursk town of Sudzha, which is a key Ukrainian supply hub and operational base. Ukrainian soldiers said the situation is dynamic, and fighting continues in and around the town, but three of them conceded Russian forces were making headway.
Russian state news agencies RIA Novosti and Tass reported Wednesday that the Russian military has entered Sudzha. It was not possible to independently verify either side’s claims.
Inside Ukraine, Russian ballistic missiles killed at least five civilians, officials said Wednesday.
Russian officials are wary about the US-Ukraine talks
Russian lawmakers signaled wariness about the prospect of a ceasefire.
“Russia is advancing (on the battlefield), so it will be different with Russia,” senior Russian senator Konstantin Kosachev noted in a post on the messaging app Telegram.
“Any agreements (with the understanding of the need for compromise) should be on our terms, not American,” Kosachev wrote.
Lawmaker Mikhail Sheremet told the state news agency Tass that Russia “is not interested in continuing” the war, but at the same time Moscow “will not tolerate being strung along.”
The outcome of the Saudi Arabia talks “places the onus on Washington to persuade Moscow to accept and implement the ceasefire,” said John Hardie, a defense analyst and deputy director of the Russia program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based research institute.
“Moscow will present itself as cooperative, but may push for agreement on basic principles for a final peace deal before agreeing to a ceasefire,” he said.
“Russia may also insist on barring Western military aid to Ukraine during the ceasefire and on Ukraine holding elections ahead of a long-term peace agreement.”
Russia’s foreign intelligence service, known as the SVR, reported Wednesday that the service’s chief, Sergei Naryshkin, spoke on the phone Tuesday with CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
The two discussed cooperation “in areas of common interest and the resolution of crisis situations,” according to a statement by the SVR.

Putin visits Kursk region for first time since Ukraine attacked it

Putin visits Kursk region for first time since Ukraine attacked it
Updated 5 sec ago
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Putin visits Kursk region for first time since Ukraine attacked it

Putin visits Kursk region for first time since Ukraine attacked it
  • Vladimir Putin heard a report from Valery Gerasimov, the head of the Russian General Staff

MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin has visited the western Russian region of Kursk for the first time since Ukrainian forces seized some territory in the region in August, Russian news agencies reported on Wednesday.
Putin visited a control center used by Russian forces and heard a report from Valery Gerasimov, head of the Russian General Staff, who told him that Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region were now surrounded.
Putin said Russian forces should completely liberate the region from the Ukrainian troops as soon as possible.

"I am counting on the fact that all the combat tasks facing our units will be fulfilled, and the territory of the Kursk region will soon be completely liberated from the enemy," Putin said in televised remarks.
Putin was shown seated wearing a camouflage-print shirt in a room listening to a report by Gerasimov. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies that Putin had visited one of the command points for the Kursk group of troops.


Trump says negotiators headed to Russia ‘right now’

US President Donald Trump points as he attends the annual Friends of Ireland luncheon at the US Capitol in Washington, D.C., US.
US President Donald Trump points as he attends the annual Friends of Ireland luncheon at the US Capitol in Washington, D.C., US.
Updated 40 min 56 sec ago
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Trump says negotiators headed to Russia ‘right now’

US President Donald Trump points as he attends the annual Friends of Ireland luncheon at the US Capitol in Washington, D.C., US.
  • “People are going to Russia right now as we speak. And hopefully we can get a ceasefire from Russia,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that negotiators were headed to Russia “right now” for talks on a possible ceasefire with Ukraine, after Kyiv agreed to a 30-day truce.
Trump did not give further details on the negotiating team.
“People are going to Russia right now as we speak. And hopefully we can get a ceasefire from Russia,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during a meeting with Ireland’s prime minister.
“And if we do, I think that would be 80 percent of the way to getting this horrible bloodbath finished.”
Vice President JD Vance, who was also in the meeting, added that there were “conversations that are happening on the phone and in person with some of our representatives over the next couple of days.”
Trump would not say when he would next speak to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, but added that “I hope he’s going to have a ceasefire” and that there had been “positive messages” from Moscow.
“It’s up to Russia now,” said Trump.
Trump was coy about pressuring Moscow to agree to a truce, saying he could slap it with “devastating” sanctions but adding that “I hope that’s not going to be necessary.”
“I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia. I don’t want to do that because I want to get peace,” Trump added.
His comments come less than two weeks after an explosive row between Trump, Vance and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office in front of television cameras.
Trump halted military aid after the argument to pressure Kyiv, which agreed to a US-proposed plan for a 30-day ceasefire at talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.


French far-right leader to make unprecedented Israel visit

French far-right leader to make unprecedented Israel visit
Updated 53 min 46 sec ago
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French far-right leader to make unprecedented Israel visit

French far-right leader to make unprecedented Israel visit
  • Also attending will be Bardella’s fellow European Parliament MP Marion Marechal
  • “Jordan Bardella will deliver a speech on the rise of anti-Semitism in France since October 7,” a source said

PARIS: Jordan Bardella, the leader of France’s far-right National Rally (RN) party, is to make an unprecedented visit to Israel later this month to attend a conference on fighting anti-Semitism, a party source said on Wednesday.
Also attending will be Bardella’s fellow European Parliament MP Marion Marechal, the niece of Marine Le Pen, who leads a separate far-right movement, she told AFP.
They are both expected on March 26 and 27 in Jerusalem on invitation of the Israeli government to address the conference.
“Jordan Bardella will deliver a speech on the rise of anti-Semitism in France since October 7,” a source close to Bardella told AFP, confirming a report in newspaper Le Figaro.
Since the attack led by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, the RN has sought to present itself as a bulwark against anti-Semitism.
The party was co-founded as the National Front (FN) by Marine Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died earlier this year and was known for his anti-Semitic remarks.
Marine Le Pen has moved emphatically to distance the movement from her father’s legacy, renaming the party the RN and seeking to make it electable.
Marine Le Pen now leads the RN MPs in the French parliament and is eager to stand again in 2027 presidential elections.
Jean-Marie Le Pen declared in 1987 that the Nazi gas chambers used to exterminate Jews are “just a detail in the history of World War II.”
In an invitation letter, the Israeli government said that “this major conference will bring together political leaders, international organizations, special envoys, and prominent figures from around the world to discuss and address the global threat of modern anti-Semitism.”
Israel is also planning “special visits” for the two MEPs, “to Israel’s southern and northern borders to better understand the geopolitical landscape.”
This is the first time that figures from the French far right have been invited to this type of conference.
In November 2023, President Emmanuel Macron attacked the RN, without naming it, accusing the movement of “claiming to support our compatriots of Jewish faith by confusing the rejection of Muslims with support for Jews.”


Columbia grad student’s detention will stretch on as lawyers spar over Trump’s plan to deport him

Columbia grad student’s detention will stretch on as lawyers spar over Trump’s plan to deport him
Updated 12 March 2025
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Columbia grad student’s detention will stretch on as lawyers spar over Trump’s plan to deport him

Columbia grad student’s detention will stretch on as lawyers spar over Trump’s plan to deport him
  • After Khalil’s Manhattan arrest, Judge Jesse M. Furman ordered that the 30-year-old not be deported while the court considers a legal challenge brought by his lawyers
  • One of Khalil’s lawyers, Ramzi Kassem, told the judge that Khalil was “identified, targeted and detained” because of his advocacy for Palestinian rights and his protected speech

NEW YORK: Mahmoud Khalil will remain detained in Louisiana until at least next week following an initial court hearing in New York on Wednesday over the Trump administration’s plans to deport the Columbia University graduate student for his role in campus protests against Israel.
The brief hearing, which focused on thorny jurisdictional issues, drew hundreds of demonstrators to the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan to denounce the Saturday arrest of Khalil, a permanent US resident who is married to an American citizen. Khalil, 30, didn’t attend — after initially being held in New Jersey, he was moved to an immigration detention center in Louisiana.
After Khalil’s Manhattan arrest, Judge Jesse M. Furman ordered that the 30-year-old not be deported while the court considers a legal challenge brought by his lawyers, who want Khalil returned to New York and released under supervision.
During Wednesday’s hearing, attorney Brandon Waterman argued on behalf of the Justice Department that the venue for the deportation fight should be moved from New York City to Louisiana or New Jersey because those are the locations where Khalil has been held.
One of Khalil’s lawyers, Ramzi Kassem, told the judge that Khalil was “identified, targeted and detained” because of his advocacy for Palestinian rights and his protected speech. He said Khalil has no criminal convictions, but “for some reason, is being detained.”
Kassem also told Furman that Khalil’s legal team hasn’t been able to have a single attorney-client-protected phone call with him.
Furman ordered that the lawyers be allowed to speak with him by phone at least once on Wednesday and Thursday. Calling the legal issues “important and weighty,” the judge also directed the two sides to submit a joint letter on Friday describing when they propose to submit written arguments over the legal issues raised by Khalil’s detention.
Kassem said Khalil’s lawyers would update their lawsuit on Thursday.
Khalil’s arrest has sparked protests in New York and other US cities. Actor Susan Sarandon emerged from the courthouse and told reporters that “no matter where you stand on genocide, freedom of speech ... is a right that we all have.” She added: ”And this is a turning point in the history and the freedom of this country.”
Some of Khalil’s supporters, many of them wearing a keffiyeh and mask, attended the hearing. Hundreds more demonstrated outside the courthouse, beating drums, waving Palestinian flags and chanting for Khalil’s release. The raucous crowd grew quiet, though, to hear Kassem speak.
“As we tried to make clear in court today, what happened to Mahmoud Khalil is nothing short of extraordinary and shocking and outrageous,” Kassem told the crowd. “It should outrage anybody who believes that speech should be free in the United States of America.”
Kassem said the legal grounds cited by the government to detain Khalil were “vague” and “rarely used,” masking the true intent: “retaliation and punishment for the exercise of free speech.”
Columbia became the center of a US pro-Palestinian protest movement that swept across college campuses nationwide last year and led to more than 2,000 arrests.
Khalil, whose wife is pregnant with their first child, finished his requirements for a Columbia master’s degree in December. Born in Syria, he is a grandson of Palestinians who were forced to leave their homeland, his lawyers said in a legal filing.
President Donald Trump heralded Khalil’s arrest as the first “of many to come,” vowing on social media to deport students he described as engaging in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity.”
During a stopover in Ireland while headed from Saudi Arabia to a meeting of the G7 foreign ministers in Canada, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that Khalil’s case is “not about free speech.”
“This is about people that don’t have a right to be in the United States to begin with. No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a green card,” Rubio said.
Khalil, who acted as a spokesperson for Columbia protesters, hasn’t been charged with a crime. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that the administration moved to deport him under a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that gives the secretary of state the power to deport a noncitizen on foreign policy grounds.
Civil rights groups and Khalil’s attorneys say the government is unconstitutionally using its immigration control powers to stop him from speaking out.
US Jewish groups and leaders and organizations have been divided in their response to Khalili’s detention.
Among those welcoming the move was the Anti-Defamation League, which said it hopes it serves as a “deterrent.”
“We appreciate the Trump Administration’s broad, bold set of efforts to counter campus antisemitism — and this action further illustrates that resolve by holding alleged perpetrators responsible for their actions,” the ADL said on social media.
Amy Spitalnick, CEO of Jewish Council for Public Affairs, decried Khalil’s detention.
The Trump administration “is exploiting real concerns about antisemitism to undercut democracy: from gutting education funding to deporting students to attacking diversity, equity, & inclusion,” she wrote on Bluesky. “As we’ve repeatedly said: this makes Jews — & so many others — less safe.”