WASHINGTON: Officials and federal officers turned away scores of US Agency for International Development staffers who showed up for work Monday at its Washington headquarters, after a court temporarily blocked a Trump administration order that would have pulled all but a fraction of workers off the job worldwide.
The Trump administration confirmed to The Associated Press that it had taken USAID off the lease of the building, which it had occupied for decades.
USAID’s eviction from its headquarters marks the latest in the swift dismantling of the aid agency and its programs by President Donald Trump and his billionaire ally, Elon Musk. Both have targeted agency spending that they call wasteful and accuse its work around the world of being out of line with Trump’s agenda.
A steady stream of agency staffers — dressed in business clothes or USAID sweatshirts or T-shirts — were told by a front desk officer Monday that he had a list of no more than 10 names of people allowed to enter the building. Tarps covered USAID’s interior signs.
A man who earlier identified himself as a USAID official took a harsher tone, telling staffers “just go” and “why are you here?”
USAID staff were denied entry to their offices to retrieve belongings and were told the lease had been turned over to the General Services Administration, which manages federal government buildings.
A GSA spokesperson confirmed that USAID had been removed from the lease and the building would be repurposed for other government uses.
Even as Trump and Musk, who runs what is billed as a cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency, have taken aim at other government agencies, USAID has been hit hardest so far.
The president signed an executive order freezing foreign assistance, forcing US-funded aid and development programs worldwide to shut down and lay off staff. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had sought to mitigate the damage by issuing a waiver to exempt emergency food aid and “life-saving” programs.
Despite the waiver, neither funding nor staffing has resumed to get even the most essential programs rolling again, USAID officials and aid groups say.
The Norwegian Refugee Council, one of the largest humanitarian groups, called the US cutoff the most devastating in its 79-year history and said Monday that it will have to suspend programs serving hundreds of thousands of people in 20 countries.
“The impact of this will be felt severely by the most vulnerable, from deeply neglected Burkina Faso, where we are the only organization supplying clean water to the 300,000 trapped in the blockaded city of Djibo, to war-torn Sudan, where we support nearly 500 bakeries in Darfur providing daily subsidized bread to hundreds of thousands of hunger-stricken people,” the group said in a statement.
In an interview aired Sunday with Fox News host Bret Baier ahead of the Super Bowl, Trump suggested that he might allow a handful of aid and development programs to resume under Rubio’s oversight.
“Let him take care of the few good ones,” Trump said. Aid organizations say the damage that has been done to programs would make it impossible to restart many operations without additional substantial investment.
A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked a Trump administration order that would have put thousands of USAID staffers on administrative leave that day and given those abroad 30 days to get back to the United States at government expense.
The temporary restraining order came in a lawsuit by two groups representing federal workers, and another hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
While the judge ordered the administration to restore agency email access for staffers, the order said nothing about reopening USAID headquarters. Some staffers and contractors reported having their agency email restored by Monday, while others said they did not.
Some staffers said they came to the USAID offices because they were confused by conflicting agency emails and notices over the weekend about whether they should go in. Others expected they would be turned away but went anyway.
A USAID email sent Sunday night, saying it was “From the office of the administrator,” told employees that what it called “the former USAID headquarters” and other USAID offices in the Washington area were closed until further notice. It told workers to telework unless they are instructed otherwise.
USAID is stripped of its lease and staffers turned away from DC headquarters
https://arab.news/nu9mu
USAID is stripped of its lease and staffers turned away from DC headquarters
- USAID’s eviction from its headquarters marks the latest in the swift dismantling of the aid agency and its programs by President Donald Trump and his billionaire ally, Elon Musk
Trump says Australia will grant asylum to Iran women footballers
MIAMI: US President Donald Trump said Monday that Australia had agreed to grant asylum to some of Iran’s visiting women’s football team, amid fears they could face retaliation back home for not singing the national anthem before a match.
The gesture ahead of the team’s Asian Cup match against South Korea last week was seen by many as an act of defiance against the Islamic republic just two days after the United States and Israel attacked it.
“I just spoke to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, of Australia, concerning the Iranian National Women’s Soccer Team. He’s on it! Five have already been taken care of,” Trump said Monday on his Truth Social network, less than two hours after an initial post urging Australia to take them in.
Trump added that “some, however, feel they must go back because they are worried about the safety of their families, including threats to those family members if they don’t return.”
There was no immediate comment from the Australian government, which has so far declined to say whether it could offer the players asylum.
Asked about their case on Sunday, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia “stands in solidarity” with the people of Iran.
The son of Iran’s late shah, US-based Reza Pahlavi, warned on Monday that the refusal to sing the anthem could have “dire consequences,” and urged Australia to offer the team protection.
Trump then weighed in, pressing Albanese to “give ASYLUM” to the team and adding: “The US will take them if you won’t.”
“Australia is making a terrible humanitarian mistake by allowing the Iran National Woman’s Soccer team to be forced back to Iran, where they will most likely be killed,” the US leader said on Truth Social.
Pahlavi, who has not returned to Iran since before the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the monarchy, has billed himself as the man to lead a democratic transition to a secular Iran as the theocratic regime fights to survive.
Politicians, human rights activists and even “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling have also called for the team to be offered official protection.
“Please, protect these young women,” Rowling said in a post on social media.
‘Save our girls’
A presenter on Iranian state TV had branded the players “wartime traitors” after they stood motionless during the anthem before their match against South Korea.
In subsequent games, the players saluted and sang.
Crowds gathered outside the Gold Coast stadium where the side played their last match over the weekend, banging drums and shouting “regime change for Iran.”
They then surrounded the Iranian team bus, chanting “let them go” and “save our girls.”
On Monday, an AFP journalist saw members of the team speaking on phones from their balcony of their hotel.
Asked about the possibility of granted asylum, a spokesperson for Australia’s Home Affairs department told AFP earlier it “cannot comment on the circumstances of individuals.”
Amnesty International campaigner Zaki Haidari said they faced persecution, or worse, if they were sent home.
“Some of these team members probably have had their families already threatened,” Haidari told AFP.
“Them going back... who knows what sort of punishment they will receive?“
Despite being heavily monitored, the side would have a “small window of opportunity” to seek asylum at the airport, he said.
Iran’s embassy in Australia did not respond to a request for comment.
