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Some global health projects whose U.S.-funded contracts were suddenly canceled last week have received letters reversing those decisions, according to media reports. The reversal came after the Trump administration ended about 90% of contracts funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. State Department. Democratic lawmakers, along with some Republicans and rights groups, have sharply criticized administration efforts to shut down federally funded humanitarian efforts around the world. Michael Adekunle Charles, chief executive of the RBM Partnership to End Malaria, said his organization’s letter reversing the cutoff of its funds arrived late Wednesday. “I think it’s good news. We need to wait in the coming days to get additional guidance,” he told Reuters. “Our priority is saving lives, so the earlier we can get started to continue saving lives, the better.” Other programs that receive some U.S. funding to respond to tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS also had their cuts reversed. Still, uncertainty remains. “It sounds good, but we cannot draw down money,” Dr. Lucica Ditiu, executive director of Stop TB Partnership, told Reuters. “We have no clarity.” A U.S. State Department spokesperson said the Trump administration had been working to review every dollar spent “to ensure taxpayer resources are being used to make America safer, stronger and more prosperous.” Trump ordered a 90-day pause on all U.S. foreign aid on his first day back in the White House. Subsequent stop-work orders have drawn USAID operations around the world to a standstill. Most USAID staff have also been placed on leave or fired. On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s emergency order for the administration to quickly release funding to contractors and recipients of grants from USAID and the State Department. The funding would cover nearly $2 billion for work already performed by the organizations. Meanwhile, contractors and grant recipients suing the government are asking U.S. District Judge Amir Ali to set a new Monday deadline to release much of the funding for their completed work. The deadline would not apply to the entire $2 billion. The contractors and grant recipients are also asking for the restoration of most of the foreign aid contracts and grants, which the Trump administration ended last month, while the lawsuit continues. The administration said that “all legitimate payments” owed to the plaintiffs would be made “within days,” and not more than 10 days, but that foreign payments to other parties … “Some US cuts to global health programs reversed, groups say “ →

President Donald Trump is signaling a major change in how the U.S. will support growth in key domestic industries such as semiconductors. Michelle Quinn reports. …

white house — President Donald Trump on Thursday confirmed that his administration was negotiating with Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group, to free the remaining hostages, and he doubled down on his earlier ultimatum that there would be “hell to pay” in Gaza if they were not released immediately. “You’re going to find out,” Trump said from the Oval Office when asked by a reporter what he meant. Trump highlighted his Wednesday meeting with freed Israeli hostages. “I had the honor of spending a lot of time yesterday with quite a few of the people that we got out, and I can’t believe how badly treated they were,” he said. Earlier Thursday, Steve Witkoff, the president’s special envoy to the Middle East, told reporters at the White House there could be “some action taken” by the administration that could be done “jointly with the Israelis.” “Hamas has an opportunity to act reasonably, to do what’s right, and then to walk out,” Witkoff said, referring to U.S. and Israeli demands that Hamas not have any military or political role in postwar Gaza. Neither Trump nor the White House responded to queries on whether the options being considered would include military action. In the past, officials have said they will not send American troops to Gaza. Trump’s decision to begin direct talks with Hamas to release hostages, led by special envoy for hostages Adam Boehler, marks a departure from Washington’s long-standing policy to not negotiate with terrorists. “We are helping Israel in those discussions, because we’re talking about Israeli hostages. And we’re not doing anything in terms of Hamas. We’re not giving cash,” Trump said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that Israel “has expressed to the United States its position regarding direct talks with Hamas.” Hamas said the best path to free the hostages was through ceasefire negotiations. It added that threats from Trump were encouraging Israel to walk away from the multiphase Gaza ceasefire deal reached on Jan. 19, a day before Trump took office. “The language of threats does not intimidate us; it only complicates matters further,” Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement posted on a Telegram channel affiliated with the group. Wednesday on Truth Social, Trump posted, “Release all of the Hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is OVER for … “Trump confirms direct talks with Hamas” →

The fired head of a federal watchdog agency said on Thursday he was ending his legal battle over U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to remove him from office after a federal appeals court allowed the White House action.  Hampton Dellinger, who headed the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, said in a statement he was ending his lawsuit in light of Wednesday’s court ruling, saying the odds of him ultimately prevailing before the U.S. Supreme Court were long.  Dellinger, an appointee of Trump’s Democratic predecessor Joe Biden, said he believed the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit had wrongly erased the independence Congress provided for his post.  But he said he would abide by it, even if it means his agency, which protects federal employees from being punished for whistleblowing and other practices, will be run by “someone totally beholden to the president.”  “I strongly disagree with the circuit court’s decision, but I accept and will abide by it,” Dellinger said. “That’s what Americans do.”  The case marked an early test of the Republican president’s ability to rein in independent agencies and replace their leaders as part of his efforts to reshape the federal government.  Dellinger’s case previously reached the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the first legal battle involving Trump’s actions to come before the top U.S. judicial body since Trump’s return to the presidency in January.  At that time, the Supreme Court declined to allow Trump to immediately fire Dellinger while a judge who last month had temporarily blocked his removal weighed whether to issue an injunction.  U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson did so on March 1, saying allowing Trump the ability to fire Dellinger before his term was over would give the president “a constitutional license to bully officials in the executive branch into doing his will.”  But the D.C. Circuit on Wednesday put that decision on hold, resulting in Dellinger’s swift removal.  The court ruling came hours after Dellinger helped secure an order from the Merit System Protection Board directing the U.S. Department of Agriculture to temporarily reinstate thousands of workers who lost their jobs as part of Trump’s mass layoffs of the federal workforce.  That board hears appeals by federal government employees when they are fired or disciplined and has proved to be a potential roadblock in the Trump administration’s efforts to purge the federal workforce.  Trump also … “Fired watchdog agency chief ends lawsuit to keep job” →

Washington — The House of Representatives on Thursday voted to censure an unrepentant Rep. Al Green, a Democrat from Texas, for disrupting President Donald Trump’s address to Congress. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson had Green removed from the chamber during the early moments of Trump’s speech Tuesday night. Green stood and shouted at Trump after the Republican president said the Nov. 5 election had delivered a governing mandate not seen for many decades. “You have no mandate,” the Houston lawmaker said, shaking a cane and refusing an order from Johnson to “take your seat, sir!” Republicans acted quickly to rebuke Green with a censure resolution that officially registers the House’s deep disapproval of a member’s conduct. Once such a resolution is approved by majority vote, the member is asked to stand in the well of the House while the speaker or presiding officer reads the resolution. The resolution against Green was approved in a mostly party-line vote of 224-198. Rep. Dan Newhouse, the resolution’s sponsor, said it was a “necessary, but difficult step.” “This resolution is offered in all seriousness, something that I believe we must do in order to get us to the next level of conduct in this hallowed chamber,” said Newhouse, a Republican. It’s the latest fallout of the boisterous behavior that has occurred during more recent presidential addresses to Congress. Outbursts from lawmakers have happened on both sides of the political aisle. Rep. Jim McGovern, a Democrat, noted that Republicans were silent when members of their conference interrupted Democratic President Joe Biden’s speech last year. Some yelled “say her name” in reference to nursing student Laken Riley, as Biden spoke about immigration legislation that some lawmakers were working on. Riley was killed while running on the University of Georgia campus by a Venezuelan citizen who illegally entered the United States in 2022 and had been allowed to stay to pursue his immigration case. “Nobody apologized for interrupting Joe Biden time and again,” McGovern said. “You talk about lack of decorum. Go back and look at the tapes, and there was silence from the other side.” The censure resolution says Green’s actions were a “breach of proper conduct” during a joint address and that his removal “after numerous disruptions.” Democrats tried to table it Wednesday, but that effort failed on a party-line vote. Johnson tweeted before Thursday’s vote that Green “disgraced the institution of Congress and the constituents … “US House censures Democratic lawmaker for disrupting Trump’s address to Congress” →

BOSTON, Massachusetts — A second federal judge on Thursday extended a block barring the Trump administration from freezing grants and loans potentially totaling trillions of dollars. U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island granted the preliminary injunction in the lawsuit filed by nearly two dozen Democratic states after a Trump administration plan for a sweeping pause on federal spending stirred up a wave of confusion and anxiety across the United States. In his ruling, McConnell said the executive branch was trying to put itself above Congress and by doing so “undermines the distinct constitutional roles of each branch of our government.” “The Executive has not pointed to any constitutional or statutory authority that would allow them to impose this type of categorical freeze,” McConnell wrote. “The Court is not limiting the Executive’s discretion or micromanaging the administration of federal funds. Rather, consistent with the Constitution, statutes, and caselaw, the Court is simply holding that the Executive’s discretion to impose its own policy preferences on appropriated funds can be exercised only if it is authorized by the congressionally approved appropriations statutes.” The states say a litany of programs are still waiting for federal funds or some clarity on whether the money is going to be delivered. McConnell also said the states had demonstrated standing in this case. “The States have introduced dozens of uncontested declarations illustrating the effects of the indiscriminate and unpredictable freezing of federal funds, which implicate nearly all aspects of the States’ governmental operations and inhibit their ability to administer vital services to their residents,” he wrote. “These declarations reflect at least one particularized, concrete, and imminent harm that flows from the federal funding pause — a significant, indefinite loss of obligated federal funding.” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said President Donald Trump, a Republican, has “attempted to subvert the rule of law in favor of illegal executive power” through his executive orders. “We don’t have kings in this country, and today’s preliminary injunction reaffirms that,” Neronha, a Democrat, said in a statement. “Americans pay taxes to the federal government knowing that the Congress will allocate their dollars towards agencies and programs that will support them in their daily lives,” he continued. “The President’s federal funding freeze would be laughable if it wasn’t so utterly destructive. It flies in the face of everything we know to be true about our government, namely our separation of powers, … “Second judge extends block preventing Trump administration from freezing funding” →

With tariffs taking center stage in the Trump administration, experts warn that industries dependent on cross-border trade will feel the biggest impact. Stephanie Martinez explains. …

Top diplomats from the United States and Canada held talks Wednesday that included discussion of trade, while U.S. President Donald Trump delayed a new 25% tariff on vehicle imports from Canada and Mexico for a month. The U.S. State Department said Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly collaborated on “shared global challenges, secure borders, reciprocal trade, and economic prosperity.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump spoke with top officials at automakers Ford, General Motors and Stellantis before announcing the tariff delays. She said Trump urged the automakers to move their Mexican and Canadian production to the United States to avoid the tariffs altogether. Trump’s new levies on the two biggest U.S. trading partners remain in place for other products, although Leavitt said the president is open to hearing the case for other possible exemptions. Trump announced the vehicle tariff delay in a statement after speaking earlier in the day with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who, according to The Associated Press, is not willing to lift Canada’s retaliatory tariffs if Trump leaves any tariffs on Canada. Doug Ford, the Ontario provincial premier, said that if the U.S. tariff on Canadian vehicle exports to the U.S. remained in place, production at Canadian auto plants would start to shut down in about 10 days. “People are going to lose their jobs,” he said. The heads of Canada’s provinces said they were taking action to bolster trade within Canada and with countries abroad, in order to reduce their dependence on a single market, in reference to the United States. Trump imposed the duties on Mexico and Canada on Tuesday, along with doubling tariffs on Chinese imported goods, to 20%. His action caused stock markets to plunge and threatened to boost the price of U.S. consumer goods and products that businesses need to operate. Mexico, Canada and China all said Tuesday they would retaliate against Trump’s tariffs by increasing their own against U.S. products sent to their countries. Trump said on his Truth Social media platform that Trudeau called him Wednesday morning to ask what could be done about the new U.S. tax. “I told him that many people have died from Fentanyl that came through the Borders of Canada and Mexico, and nothing has convinced me that it has stopped,” the president wrote. “He said that it’s gotten better, but I said, ‘That’s not … “US, Canadian leaders discuss trade amid new US tariffs” →

WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs is planning a reorganization that includes cutting over 80,000 jobs from the sprawling agency that provides health care and other services for millions of veterans, according to an internal memo obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press. The VA’s chief of staff, Christopher Syrek, told top-level officials at the agency Tuesday that it had an objective to cut enough employees to return to 2019 staffing levels of just under 400,000. That would require terminating tens of thousands of employees after the VA expanded during the Biden administration, as well as to cover veterans impacted by burn pits under the 2022 PACT Act. The memo instructs top-level staff to prepare for an agency-wide reorganization in August to “resize and tailor the workforce to the mission and revised structure.” It also calls for agency officials to work with the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency to “move out aggressively, while taking a pragmatic and disciplined approach” to the Trump administration’s goals. Government Executive first reported on the internal memo. “Things need to change,” Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins said in a video posted on social media Wednesday afternoon, adding that the layoffs would not mean cuts to veterans’ health care or benefits. “This administration is finally going to give the veterans what they want,” Collins said. “President Trump has a mandate for generational change in Washington and that’s exactly what we’re going to deliver at the VA.” Veterans have already been speaking out against the cuts at the VA that so far had included a few thousand employees and hundreds of contracts. More than 25% of the VA’s workforce is comprised of veterans. The plans underway at the VA showed how the Trump administration’s DOGE initiative, led by billionaire Elon Musk, is not holding back on an all-out effort to slash federal agencies, even for those that have traditionally enjoyed bipartisan support. White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement that the president “refuses to accept the VA bureaucracy and bloat that has hindered veterans’ ability to receive timely and quality care.” She added that the changes would “ensure greater efficiency and transparency” at the VA. The VA last year experienced its highest-ever service levels, reaching over 9 million enrollees and delivering more than 127.5 million health care appointments, according to the agency’s figures. However, Michael Missal, who was the VA’s inspector general for nine years … “Trump administration plans to cut 80,000 jobs at Veterans Affairs, memo says” →

The U.S. Justice Department announced indictments Wednesday against 12 Chinese nationals accused in a global hacking campaign targeting U.S.-based dissidents, news organizations, government agencies and a large religious organization.  According to court documents, China’s Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of State Security used a network of private companies and hackers-for-hire to steal information and help locate dissidents and critics throughout the world.   “Today’s announcements reveal that the Chinese Ministry of Public Security has been paying hackers-for-hire to inflict digital harm on Americans who criticize the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),” said Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran of the FBI’s Cyber Division in a statement.  The suspects include two officers in China’s Ministry of Public Security, eight employees of a company known as i-Soon, and two members of a group known as Advanced Persistent Threat 27 (APT27).  A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, Liu Pengyu, told The Associated Press Wednesday that the allegations were a “smear” and said, “We hope that relevant parties will adopt a professional and responsible attitude and base their characterization of cyber incidents on sufficient evidence rather than groundless speculation and accusations.”  All of those indicted are at large, and the Justice Department is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information about the MPS officers and i-Soon, the Chinese company that employed most of the hackers.   The company is accused of selling stolen information “to China’s intelligence and security services to suppress free speech and democratic processes worldwide, and target groups deemed a threat to the Chinese government,” according to a news release from the FBI.  i-Soon also conducted computer intrusions on its own initiative, charging “the MSS and MPS equivalent to between approximately $10,000 and $75,000 for each email inbox it successfully hacked,” the indictment said.   The company also provided training in hacking skills to the government agencies.  Among the group’s targets were a large religious organization critical of the Chinese government that previously sent missionaries to China, and a group that promoted human rights and religious freedom in China.  The New York Assembly and multiple news organizations in the United States were targeted, including those that have opposed the Communist Party of China or delivered uncensored news to China.  Foreign targets included a religious leader, a Hong Kong newspaper and the foreign ministries of Taiwan, India, South Korea, and Indonesia, according to the Justice Department release.  Separate indictments were issued against the … “US indicts 12 Chinese nationals in hacking-for-hire scheme” →

U.S. Vice President JD Vance led a trio of White House officials on a visit Wednesday to a key crossing point on the Texas-Mexico border, where he echoed President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration push and assured Americans that U.S. forces don’t plan to invade Mexico. His trip to the small border town of Eagle Pass, Texas, comes on the heels of Trump’s defiant Tuesday night address before Congress, where Trump described his program of arrests and deportations as “getting them out and getting them out fast.” Vance’s words also follow Trump’s move to designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. “I’m not going to make any announcements about any invasions of Mexico here today,” Vance said. “The president has a megaphone and of course, he’ll speak to these issues as he feels necessary. But what designating cartel organizations allows us to do is deploy the full resources of the United States military to engage in serious border enforcement.” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who accompanied Vance, echoed him, saying, “Our objective is to keep the American people safe.” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, also in Texas with Vance and Gabbard, emphasized that he thinks “border security is national security,” and clarified what role troops might serve, as they are legally prohibited from performing civilian law enforcement actions. “The Defense Department has assets that we can bring to bear, not just troops, not just surveillance, not just equipment, but actual planning and capabilities that enhance what Border Patrol is already doing,” he said. Immigration advocates told VOA that the current lull in border crossings, which Vance also touted, might be misleading and criticized Trump’s enforcement-based strategy. “The ebb and flow of border numbers — under Trump and under [former President Joe] Biden — demonstrate why global migration is complicated, and why we need a full immigration overhaul from Congress to equip America for 21st century migration and to align with our interests and values, not the enforcement-only agenda of this administration,” Vanessa Cardenas, executive director of America’s Voice, told VOA via email. “The reality is that the Trump administration’s immigration policies aren’t making Americans more safe or secure, and certainly aren’t advancing our economic interests or common sense. Instead, they come at a high cost for all Americans and move us further from the real solutions we need,” Cardenas said. Meanwhile, in Washington, Representative James Comer, the Republican leader of … “Vance visits Mexico border, says US won’t invade Mexico” →

U.S. President Donald Trump this week finalized his plans to impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico and an additional 10% on China. To see how this affects some small businesses, VOA Senior Washington Correspondent Carolyn Presutti visited a whiskey business in Virginia. Kim Lewis contributed. …

A group of senior U.S. officials, led by Vice President JD Vance, arrived at the country’s southern border on Wednesday to observe surveillance operations. Meanwhile, in Washington, Democratic mayors answered questions from legislators related to immigration. Click here for the full story in Spanish.  …

WASHINGTON — An appeals court in Washington on Wednesday removed the head of a federal watchdog agency in the latest twist in a legal fight over President Donald Trump’s authority to fire the special counsel.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia sided with the Trump administration in allowing the immediate removal of Hampton Dellinger as head of the Office of Special Counsel while the court considers legal arguments in the case. Dellinger is likely to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.  Dellinger sued Trump last month after he was fired even though the law says special counsels can be removed by the president “only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson on Saturday ruled that Dellinger’s firing was unlawful and quickly reinstated him in the job while he pursued his case. It was that order that the appeals court lifted Wednesday. Dellinger’s lawyers say allowing the president to fire the special counsel without cause would have a chilling effect on the important duties of the office to protect whistleblowers. The Trump administration has argued that the law protecting the special counsel from removal is unconstitutional and unfairly prevents the president from rightfully installing his preferred agency head.  The Office of Special Counsel is responsible for guarding the federal workforce from illegal personnel actions, such as retaliation for whistleblowing. It investigates whistleblower claims of reprisal, can pursue disciplinary action against employees who punish whistleblowers and provides a channel for employees to disclose government wrongdoing.  Wednesday’s appellate ruling came as Dellinger is also challenging the removal of probationary workers who were fired as part of the Trump administration’s shake-up of the federal government.  After a request from Dellinger’s office, a government panel that enforces workers’ rights ruled Wednesday that more than 5,000 employees fired by the Trump administration should be put back on the job at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  While the order applies only to the USDA workers, Dellinger released a statement “calling on all federal agencies to voluntarily and immediately rescind any unlawful terminations of probationary employees.” …

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday took down a directory of federal facilities it had listed for possible sale that included some of the U.S. government’s most iconic properties. The apparent change of course came one day after the U.S. General Services Administration posted a list of 443 properties it said it might sell to save on maintenance costs. On Wednesday, GSA’s “noncore property list” was blank. GSA did not explain why it took down the list. The agency said in a statement that it had received an “overwhelming amount of interest” and planned to release a new list soon. GSA’s list had included the headquarters of more than a dozen federal agencies, including the GSA’s own building. Skyscrapers in Chicago, Atlanta and Cleveland and major tax-processing centers were on the list, as was the Old Post Office, the historic building that once housed the Trump International Hotel in Washington. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser called the initial list outrageous and said any sale would need to be done in an orderly fashion. “You cannot dump buildings on the market without preparation or a plan, because it would be antithetical to making this the most beautiful capital city in the world,” she said at a briefing. The potential sell-off appeared to be part of Trump’s effort to slash the federal government, led by tech billionaire Elon Musk. The downsizing drive has led to 100,000 workers taking buyouts or being laid off. …