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
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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
UK PM Starmer pressured by own MPs to pay reparations to Palestine for British ‘war crimes’
- Letter states that Britain “gave away Palestine, a land we had no right to give,” when it withdrew in 1948 following the UN-backed plan to partition the territory.
LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing pressure from a group of MPs within his ruling Labour party to apologize and consider paying reparations to Palestinians for Britain’s role during the period of the British Mandate in Palestine between 1917 and 1948.
In an open letter addressed to the prime minister, nearly 20 Labour parliamentarians called on the government to acknowledge what they described as Britain’s historical responsibility for “war crimes” committed during its administration of the territory, The Telegraph newspaper reported on Saturday.
The initiative was organized by the campaign group Britain Owes Palestine, which argues that the UK must confront its past involvement in the region.
The letter states that Britain “gave away Palestine, a land we had no right to give,” when it withdrew in 1948 following the UN-backed plan to partition the territory.
The withdrawal led to the establishment of the state of Israel and the outbreak of war, events that remain central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Campaigners say Britain should recognize that its policies during the mandate period contributed to violence and displacement.
The letter alleges that British forces committed abuses including murder, torture, arbitrary detention and home demolitions while governing the territory. According to the signatories, acknowledging these actions through an apology would represent an important symbolic step.
“An apology wouldn’t solve the conflict but is an initial first step to Britain making peace with its own past,” the letter states, urging Starmer to apologise so that “we can move towards healing this open wound.”
The document seen by The Telegraph was signed by 18 Labour MPs and one peer.
Among the signatories are prominent figures from the party’s left wing, including John McDonnell and Richard Burgon, both of whom previously served in the shadow cabinet under former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Several newly elected MPs from the party’s 2024 intake also backed the appeal.
Britain Owes Palestine was launched in 2025 and is campaigning for the UK government to acknowledge what it calls a “century of oppression.”
The group submitted a 400-page legal petition to the government in September arguing that Britain breached international law during its administration of Palestine.
The government has yet to formally respond to the petition and could face legal action, including a potential judicial review in the High Court, if it continues to decline engagement with the claims.
Starmer’s government recognized a Palestinian state in September to increase pressure on Israel to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza.
A ceasefire was reached the following month, although critics, including the opposition Conservatives, argued that the move risked rewarding militant group Hamas.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also criticised the recognition decision, saying it would have “no impact whatsoever” on achieving a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
