WASHINGTON: The dismantling of the US Agency for International Development by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency likely violated the Constitution, a federal judge ruled Tuesday as he indefinitely blocked DOGE from making further cuts to the agency.
The order requires the Trump administration to restore email and computer access to all employees of USAID, including those put on administrative leave, though it appears to stop short of reversing firings or fully resurrecting the agency.
In one of the first DOGE lawsuits against Musk himself, US District Judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland rejected the Trump administration’s position that Musk is merely President Donald Trump’s adviser.
Musk’s public statements and social media posts demonstrate that he has “firm control over DOGE,” the judge found pointing to an online post where Musk said he had “fed USAID into the wood chipper.”
The judge acknowledged that it’s likely that USAID is no longer capable of performing some of its statutorily required functions.
“Taken together, these facts support the conclusion that USAID has been effectively eliminated,” Chuang wrote in the preliminary injunction.
The lawsuit filed by USAID employees and contractors argued that Musk and DOGE are wielding power the Constitution reserves only for those who win elections or are confirmed by the Senate. Their attorneys said the ruling “effectively halts or reverses” many of the steps taken to dismantle the agency.
The administration has said that DOGE is searching for and rooting out waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government, consistent with the campaign message that helped Trump win the 2024 election. The White House and DOGE did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.
Musk, his team and Trump political appointee Pete Marocco have played a central role in the two-month dismantling of USAID. In one instance in early February, the administration placed the agency’s top security officials on forced leave after they tried to block DOGE workers from accessing USAID’s classified and sensitive documents.
The administration, with Musk’s and DOGE’s support, went on to order all but a fraction of the agency’s staffers off the job through forced leaves and firings, and terminated what the State Department said was at least 83 percent of USAID’s program contracts.
The moves were part of a broader push by Musk and the Trump administration to eradicate the six-decade-old foreign assistance agency and most of its work overseas.
Trump on Inauguration Day issued an executive order directing a freeze of foreign assistance funding and a review of all US aid and development work abroad, charging that much of foreign assistance was wasteful and advanced a liberal agenda.
Democratic lawmakers and other supporters of USAID have argued Trump had no authority to withhold funding that Congress already approved.
Chuang said DOGE’s and Musk’s fast-moving destruction of USAID likely harmed the public interest by depriving elected lawmakers of their “constitutional authority to decide whether, when and how to close down an agency created by Congress.”
The lawsuit was filed by the State Democracy Defenders Fund. Norm Eisen, the nonprofit’s executive chair, said the ruling is a milestone in pushback to DOGE and the first to find that Musk’s actions violate the Constitution’s Appointments Clause, which mandates presidential approval and Senate confirmation for certain public officials.
“They are performing surgery with a chainsaw instead of a scalpel, harming not just the people USAID serves but the majority of Americans who count on the stability of our government,” he said in a statement.
Oxfam America’s Abby Maxman in a statement urged all staffing and funding to be reinstated. “The funding freeze and program cuts are already having life or death consequences for millions around the world,” said the chief executive of the humanitarian group.
Judge rules DOGE’s USAID dismantling likely violates the Constitution
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Judge rules DOGE’s USAID dismantling likely violates the Constitution
- Musk’s public statements and social media posts demonstrate that he has “firm control over DOGE,” the judge found pointing to an online post where Musk said he had “fed USAID into the wood chipper”
Trump signs order to ramp up US deep-sea mining
- US President Donald Trump has defied international norms and instructed a quick start to deep-sea mining in domestic waters and beyond
Washington wants to lead efforts to scoop up mineral-rich deep-sea nodules and other material from the seabed, sidestepping an international regulatory effort and overriding the concerns of environmentalists.
White House aides say it could pump hundreds of billions of dollars into the American economy, and counter Beijing’s chokehold on key minerals.
But it would also undermine decades of efforts by global regulators at the International Seabed Authority to devise a level playing field and environmental protections for the industry.
The United States never ratified the agreements that empower the ISA’s jurisdiction over seabeds in international waters, and is not a member of the UN-affiliated body.
Instead, the Trump administration is “relying on an obscure 1980 law that empowers the federal government to issue seabed mining permits in international waters,” the New York Times reported.
The ISA did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.
Trump’s order gives the secretary of commerce 60 days to “expedite the process for reviewing and issuing seabed mineral exploration licenses and commercial recovery permits in areas beyond national jurisdiction.”
The move sparked anger in Beijing, which holds more exploration licenses than any other country but has held off mining awaiting the ISA’s rules.
“No country should bypass the International Seabed Authority and international law and arbitrarily authorize exploration and development activities,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said in response to a question from AFP.
“The US authorization of exploration and exploitation of mineral resources on its so-called outer continental shelf violates international law and harms the overall interests of the international community.”
Commercial deep-sea mining remains in its infancy, but with a global race underway for rare earth minerals — and the industry dominated by China — Washington appears set on expanding its collection capacity to benefit its defense, advanced manufacturing and energy industries.
Environmental groups warn the process can cause major ecological damage.
“Fast-tracking deep-sea mining is an environmental disaster in the making,” Emily Jeffers, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement.
“Trump is trying to open one of Earth’s most fragile and least understood ecosystems to reckless industrial exploitation.”
The boosted deep-sea mining policy is aimed in part at “strengthening partnerships with allies and industry to counter China’s growing influence over seabed mineral resources,” the White House said.
The ISA is scrambling to devise a rulebook for deep-sea mining, balancing its economic potential against warnings of irreversible environmental damage.
Last week, the American firm Impossible Metals said it had asked US officials to “commence a leasing process” in a parcel of the Pacific Ocean surrounding far-flung US territory American Samoa.
That would be within US jurisdiction, rather than international waters.
However, Canada-based deep-sea mining frontrunner The Metals Company recently stunned industry observers by abruptly announcing it would seek US approval to mine in international waters.
Its CEO Gerard Barron lauded Trump’s order Thursday.
“By building on decades of domestic innovation and regulatory groundwork, this action reasserts America’s role in securing critical seabed resources and ensures the US is not left behind in a strategic arena increasingly influenced by China,” Barron said in a statement.
Key seabed resources include polymetallic nodules: potato-sized pebbles found at depths of 13,000 to 20,000 feet (4,000 to 6,000 meters) that contain manganese, iron, cobalt, copper and nickel.
A senior administration official told reporters shortly before the signing that the United States could retrieve more than a billion metric tons of material, and the process could create an estimated 100,000 jobs and generate $300 billion in domestic GDP over 10 years.
Russian foreign intelligence chief says he held talks with Syrian intelligence official, TASS reports
- TASS cited Naryshkin as saying that the meeting had been held last week in Baku in Azerbaijan, without providing further details
MOSCOW: Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service, said that he had “a constructive and friendly meeting” with an unnamed representative of the Syrian intelligence services, the state TASS news agency reported on Friday.
TASS cited Naryshkin as saying that the meeting had been held last week in Baku in Azerbaijan, without providing further details.
Russia is seeking to shore up its military presence in Syria where it operates an air base and a naval facility.
Indian troops exchange fire with Pakistani soldiers in Kashmir
- Report of a gunfight comes amid soaring tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad
- The United Nations urges India and Pakistan ‘to exercise maximum restraint’
SRINAGAR, India: Indian officials said the army had a brief exchange of fire with Pakistani soldiers along their highly militarized frontier in the Himalayan region of Kashmir, as the nuclear-armed rivals ramped up tit-for-tat diplomatic offensive following a deadly attack on tourists in the disputed area.
The report of a gunfight comes amid soaring tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad after gunmen killed 26 people near the resort town of Pahalgam in Kashmir on Tuesday. India immediately described the massacre a “terror attack” and said it had “cross border” links, blaming Pakistan for backing it.
Pakistan denied any connection to the attack, which was claimed by a previously unknown militant group calling itself the Kashmir Resistance.
Three Indian army officials said that Pakistani soldiers used small arms to fire at an Indian position in Kashmir late Thursday. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with departmental policy, said Indian soldiers retaliated and no casualties were reported.
In Pakistan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday decline to confirm or deny the report. Ministry spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan told a news conference that “I will wait for a formal confirmation from the military before I make any comment.”
He added there had been no effort yet from any other country to mediate.
In the past, each side has accused the other of starting border skirmishes in Kashmir, which both claim in its entirety.
The United Nations has urged India and Pakistan “to exercise maximum restraint and to ensure that the situation and the developments we’ve seen do not deteriorate any further.”
“Any issues between Pakistan and India, we believe can be and should be resolved peacefully, through meaningful, mutual engagement,” the statement said Friday.
Following the attack, India announced a series of diplomatic actions against Pakistan.
New Delhi on Wednesday suspended a crucial water-sharing treaty that has withstood two wars between the two countries and closed the only functional land border crossing between the countries while also cutting the number of diplomatic staff. A day later, India revoked all visas issued to Pakistani nationals with effect from Sunday.
In retaliation, Pakistan on Thursday responded angrily that it has nothing to do with the attack, and canceled visas issued to Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or Indian-operated airlines and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country.
It also warned that any Indian attempt to stop or divert flow of water would be considered an “act of war” and met with “full force across the complete spectrum” of Pakistan’s national power.
Tuesday’s attack in Kashmir was the worst assault in years, targeting civilians in the restive region that has seen an anti-India rebellion for more than three decades.
India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir. New Delhi describes all militancy in Kashmir as Pakistan-backed terrorism. Pakistan denies this, and many Muslim Kashmiris consider the militants to be part of a home-grown freedom struggle.
China considers exempting some goods from US tariffs
- A Ministry of Commerce taskforce is collecting lists of items that could be exempted from tariffs
- Bloomberg first reported China was considering tariff exemptions on Friday.
DUBAI: China is considering exempting some US imports from its 125 percent tariffs and is asking businesses to provide lists of goods that could be eligible in the biggest sign yet that Beijing is worried about the economic fallout from its trade war with Washington.
A Ministry of Commerce taskforce is collecting lists of items that could be exempted from tariffs and is asking companies to submit their own requests, according to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Financial news magazine Caijing reported on Friday citing sources that Beijing was preparing to include eight semiconductor-related items, although no memory chips.
A list of 131 categories of products eligible for exemptions was circulating widely on social media and among businesses and trade groups on Friday. Reuters could not verify the list, whose items ranged from vaccines and chemicals to jet engines.
Repeated phone calls to China’s customs department were not answered. Customs and the Ministry of Commerce did not immediately respond to faxed questions.
Bloomberg first reported China was considering tariff exemptions on Friday.
The exemptions signal that, like Washington, Beijing is deeply concerned about the economic pain rippling across the country as the world’s two largest economies decouple.
While Washington has said the current status quo is economically untenable and already offered tariff exemptions to some electronic goods, China has repeatedly said it is willing to fight to the end unless the US lifts its tariffs.
But beneath the bombast, China’s economy is entering the trade war flirting with deflation. Demand is weak and consumer spending and sentiment have never properly recovered from the pandemic levels.
The government is pushing tariff-hit exporters to pivot to local markets, but companies say profits are lower, demand weaker and customers less reliable.
Exemptions are a bigger gesture of support, although by allowing some trade to resume, they also reduce the pain for the US economy and take some pressure off the White House.
At least 5 dead in Thai police plane crash
- The plane was conducting a test flight to prepare for parachute training in Hua Hin district before it crashed around 8 a.m.
BANGKOK: A small police plane crashed into the sea near a popular beach town in Thailand, killing at least five people on board, officials said.
The plane was conducting a test flight to prepare for parachute training in Hua Hin district before it crashed around 8 a.m., said Royal Thai Police spokesperson Archayon Kraithong.
Officials did not immediately share the model of the propeller plane, but photos from the scene appear to show a Viking DHC-6 Twin Otter. The plane crashed near Hua Hin Airport, said the public relations department of Prachuab Kiri Khan province.
The photos show the plane in the sea about 100 meters offshore. The body of the plane appeared to be broken in two.
There were six people on board, all police officers, Archayon said. He initially said that five people died at the scene and one died at the hospital, but later revised the death toll to five, saying the officer who was sent to the hospital remained in critical condition but alive.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known. Archayon said officials are gathering evidence including data from the plane’s black box.
