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WASHINGTON — A government watchdog wants more than 5,000 probationary employees to be reinstated at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the latest example of resistance to President Donald Trump ‘s efforts to downsize the federal workforce. The Office of Special Counsel made the request Friday and disclosed it Tuesday. If the request is granted by the Merit Systems Protection Board, the employees would be back on the job for 45 days as an investigation continues. At that point, the board could be asked to make a final decision to reinstate them. Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger said the firings “appear to have been carried out in a manner inconsistent with federal personnel laws.” It’s possible that he could reach similar conclusions about employees at other departments as well. Probationary workers have been targeted for layoffs across the federal government because they’re usually new to the job and lack full civil service protection. They were often summarily informed that they were being fired for poor performance. The case is proceeding at a moment of turbulence for the federal workforce and the offices responsible for protecting workers’ rights. Not only are administration officials laying off thousands of employees, Trump wants to remove obstacles by firing Dellinger and Cathy Harris, a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board nominated by President Joe Biden. Both attempts have been blocked through litigation, most recently on Tuesday when U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras ruled that Trump did not have the power to remove Harris from office “at will.” The attempt to fire her was illegal because he didn’t seek to remove her for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office,” the judge said. The one-sentence email that informed Harris of her firing didn’t cite any of those reasons, Harris’ attorneys said. “There are hard constitutional cases where the law remains unsettled and the Supreme Court has not spoken. This case is not among them,” they wrote in a court filing. Administration officials have already appealed Contreras’ order. Harris was appointed in 2022 and has chaired the board since last March. Her term was due to expire in March 2028, but the White House notified her of her firing on Feb. 12. A second board member, Raymond Limon, retired Friday. Government attorneys argued that the judiciary doesn’t have the authority to reinstate Harris or bar Trump from replacing her on the board. “The American people elected President Trump … “Government watchdog wants thousands of federal workers to be reinstated” →

NEW YORK — The Pritzker Prize, dubbed the “Nobel” for architecture, was awarded Tuesday to China’s Liu Jiakun, who was recognized for designs that celebrate “everyday lives.” “In a global context where architecture is struggling to find adequate responses to fast evolving social and environmental challenges, Liu Jiakun has provided convincing answers that also celebrate the everyday lives of people as well as their communal and spiritual identities,” the award’s jury wrote in a statement. Born in 1956, Liu has worked on more than 30 projects in China ranging from academic and cultural institutions to civic spaces and commercial buildings. “Architecture should reveal something  it should abstract, distill and make visible the inherent qualities of local people,” Liu said in the statement, evoking his craft’s capacity to create “a sense of shared community.” Liu lives and works in his birth city of Chengdu, where he prioritizes the use of local materials and traditional building techniques. His projects include the Museum of Clocks in Chengdu, a large circular structure with a skylight that illuminates an interior strip of photographs. Alejandro Aravena, who won the award in 2016 and is chair of the jury, said Liu’s works offer “clues on how to confront the challenges of urbanization” especially because they are sometimes “a building, infrastructure, landscape and public space at the same time.” “Cities tend to segregate functions, but Liu Jiakun takes the opposite approach and sustains a delicate balance to integrate all dimensions of the urban life,” Aravena said. Liu, who is the 54th recipient of the Pritzker Prize, will be honored at a celebration in Abu Dhabi in spring, award organizers said. Last year’s prize went to Japan’s Riken Yamamoto, whose projects are credited with promoting human contact and who said at the time his objective was to “design architecture that can bring joy to people around it.” …

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA — NASA’s two stuck astronauts are just a few weeks away from finally returning to Earth after nine months in space.  Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have to wait until their replacements arrive at the International Space Station next week before they can check out later this month.  They’ll be joined on their SpaceX ride home by two astronauts who launched by themselves in September alongside two empty seats.  Speaking from the space station on Tuesday, Williams said the hardest part about the unexpected extended stay was the wait by their families back home.  “It’s been a roller coaster for them, probably a little more so than for us,” she said.  Wilmore and Williams expected to be gone just a week or so when they launched last June aboard Boeing’s new Starliner capsule, making its crew debut after years of delay.  The Starliner had so many problems getting to the space station that NASA ruled it too dangerous to carry anyone and it flew back empty.  Their homecoming was further delayed by the extra completion time needed for the brand new SpaceX capsule that was supposed to deliver their replacements.  Last month, NASA announced the next crew would launch in a used capsule instead, pushing up liftoff to March 12. The two crews will spend about a week together aboard the space station before Wilmore and Williams depart with NASA’s Nick Hague and the Russian Space Agency’s Alexander Gorbunov.  Wilmore and Williams — retired Navy captains and repeat space fliers — have insisted over the months that they are healthy and committed to the mission as long as it takes. They took a spacewalk together in January. …

WASHINGTON — A divided Supreme Court on Tuesday made it harder for environmental regulators to limit water pollution, ruling for San Francisco in a case about the discharge of raw sewage that sometimes occurs during heavy rains.  By a 5-4 vote, the court’s conservative majority ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency overstepped its authority under the Clean Water Act with water pollution permits that contain vague requirements for maintaining water quality.  The decision is the latest in which conservative justices have reined in pollution control efforts.  Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the court that EPA can set specific limits that tell cities and counties what can be discharged. But the agency lacks the authority “to include ‘end-result’ provisions,” Alito wrote, that make cities and counties responsible for maintaining the quality of the water, the Pacific Ocean in this case, into which wastewater is discharged.  “When a permit contains such requirements, a permittee that punctiliously follows every specific requirement in its permit may nevertheless face crushing penalties if the quality of the water in its receiving waters falls below the applicable standards,” he wrote.  One conservative justice, Amy Coney Barrett, joined the court’s three liberals in dissent. Limits on discharges sometimes still don’t ensure water quality standards are met, Barrett wrote.   “The concern that the technology-based effluent limitations may fall short is on display in this case,” Barrett wrote, adding that “discharges from components of San Francisco’s sewer system have allegedly led to serious breaches of the water quality standards, such as ‘discoloration, scum, and floating material, including toilet paper, in Mission Creek.’”  The case produced an unusual alliance of the liberal northern California city, energy companies and business groups.  The EPA has issued thousands of the permits, known as narrative permits, over several decades, former acting general counsel Kevin Minoli said.  The narrative permits have operated almost as a backstop in case permits that quantify what can be discharged still result in unacceptable water quality, Minoli said.  With the new restrictions imposed by the court, “the question is what comes in place of those limits,” Minoli said.  Alito downplayed the impact of the decision, writing that the agency has “the tools needed” to ensure water quality standards are met. …

The Hong Kong-based conglomerate that operates ports near the Panama Canal has agreed to sell shares of its units that operate the ports to a consortium including BlackRock Inc., after President Donald Trump alleged Chinese interference with the operations of the critical shipping lane. In a filing, CK Hutchison Holding said Tuesday that it would sell all shares in Hutchison Port Holdings and all shares in Hutchison Port Group Holdings. The two units hold 80% of the Hutchison Ports group that operates 43 ports in 23 countries. The consortium, comprised of BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners and Terminal Investment Limited will acquire 90% interests in Panama Ports Company, which owns and operates the ports of Balboa and Cristobal in Panama, according to the filing. In January, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, the Republican chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, raised concerns that China could exploit or block passage through the canal and that the ports “give China ready observation posts” to take action. “This situation, I believe, posts acute risks for U.S. national security,” Cruz said. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Panama in early February and told President Jose Raul Mulino that Panama had to reduce Chinese influence over the canal or face potential retaliation from the United States. Mulino rejected the idea that China had any control over canal operations. Panama quit China’s Belt and Road Initiative following Rubio’s visit, drawing condemnation from Beijing. But while much attention was focused on Trump’s threat to retake control of the canal, his administration trained its sights on Hutchison Ports, the Hong Kong-based consortium that manages the ports key ports at either end of the canal. Hutchison Ports had recently been awarded a 25-year no-bid extension to run the ports, but an audit looking at that extension was already underway. Observers believed the audit was a preliminary step toward eventually rebidding the contract, but rumors had swirled in recent weeks that a U.S. firm close to the White House was being lined up to take over. …

WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department on Tuesday reinstated the “foreign terrorist organization” designation for Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi group, fulfilling an order announced by President Donald Trump shortly after he took office. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the department had restored the designation, which carries with it sanctions and penalties for anyone providing “material support” for the group. “Since 2023, the Houthis have launched hundreds of attacks against commercial vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, as well as U.S. service members defending freedom of navigation and our regional partners,” Rubio said in a statement. “Most recently, the Houthis spared Chinese-flagged ships while targeting American and allied vessels.” The Houthis have targeted more than 100 merchant vessels in the critical trade corridor with missiles and drones since the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip started in October 2023. In January, the group signaled that it would limit its attacks in the Red Sea corridor to only Israeli-affiliated ships after a ceasefire began in the Gaza Strip but warned that wider assaults could resume if needed. Trump’s first Republican administration had similarly designated the Houthis in its waning days, but the designation had been revoked by President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration over concerns it would badly affect the delivery of aid to Yemen, which was facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. The United Nations said last month that it suspended its humanitarian operations in the stronghold of Yemen’s Houthi rebels after they detained eight more U.N. staffers. The rebels in recent months have detained dozens of U.N. staffers, as well as people associated with aid groups, civil society and the once-open U.S. Embassy in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital. None of the U.N. staffers have been released. The Iranian-backed Houthis have been fighting Yemen’s internationally recognized government, which is backed by a Saudi-led coalition, since 2014, when they descended from their stronghold in Saada and took control of Sanaa and most of the north. …

NEW ORLEANS — Thousands of revelers adorned in beads and outlandish costumes will fill the streets of New Orleans as the city celebrates Mardi Gras Day despite anticipated severe storms. The city’s two biggest parades — hosted by social clubs Krewe of Zulu and Krewe of Rex — are set to go on with earlier start times, shorter routes and no marching bands, New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick told reporters Monday. The parades will be required to wrap up by 11:30 a.m. local time to avoid diminishing weather. “Bottom line, they gonna still get the Zulu parade and all the excitement, it’s just a little earlier,” said Darren Mire, a Krewe of Zulu spokesperson. “We have to err on the side of caution, we have to protect the citizens of New Orleans and the visitors, and this was the best decision possible to get things done.” Thunderstorms and winds up to 100 kph are expected throughout Tuesday, the National Weather Service said. In neighboring Jefferson Parish, officials canceled parades. Kirkpatrick warned parade-goers to not bring umbrellas, tents or “anything that could fly in the wind and cause mayhem.” Worsening weather Tuesday morning could still be a condition for calling off the city’s parades at the last minute, she added. “I will cancel the parades at that point, no matter what time that is,” Kirkpatrick said. “I hold that trump card in which I will not hesitate to cancel — I won’t do it lightly, but I will do it.” Two other parades that had been scheduled to roll through the city later on Tuesday with nearly 200 truck floats have been postponed to Sunday, Kirkpatrick said. Other cities along the Gulf Coast, such as Mobile, Alabama, and Pensacola, Florida, hold their own Mardi Gras Day parades. The culmination of the weekslong carnival season, Fat Tuesday festivities of feasting and drinking precede Ash Wednesday, traditionally the start of Lent, a period of fasting in Christian tradition in preparation for Easter Sunday. As a result, this year’s Mardi Gras Day falls unusually late in the year. But the outsized culture of street parties, extravagant balls and spirited parades has evolved into a decidedly secular spectacle in the Big Easy. The day kicks off with the North Side Skull and Bone Gang, a drum-playing group which for more than 200 years has gathered before sunrise to awake neighbors in the city’s historic Treme … “New Orleans to celebrate Mardi Gras Day with costumes and revelry despite weather concerns” →

Chinese tech firms and state media have spotlighted humanoid robots, which have grown in popularity since the Unitree G1 appeared to run, jump, dance and perform martial arts-like movements in a recent demonstration. Both the United States and China are leaders in humanoid robot technology. But industry analysts believe that the United States is superior in AI technology, which is responsible for the robot’s “brain,” while Chinese technology companies have flourished in the hardware manufacturing capabilities of the robot’s “body.” Click here for the full story in Mandarin. …

WASHINGTON — The administration of President Donald Trump said on Monday it will review Columbia University’s federal contracts and grants over allegations of antisemitism, which it says the educational institution has shown inaction in tackling. Rights advocates note rising antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab bias since U.S. ally Israel’s devastating military assault on Gaza began after Palestinian Hamas militants’ deadly October 2023 attack. The Justice Department said a month ago it formed a task force to fight antisemitism. The U.S. Departments of Health and Education and the General Services Administration jointly made the review announcement on Monday. “The Federal Government’s Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism is considering Stop Work Orders for $51.4 million in contracts between Columbia University and the Federal Government,” the joint statement said. The agencies said no contracting actions had been taken yet. “The task force will also conduct a comprehensive review of the more than $5 billion in federal grant commitments to Columbia University.” The agencies did not respond to requests for comment on whether there were similar reviews over allegations of Islamophobia and anti-Arab bias. Columbia had no immediate comment. It previously said it made efforts to tackle antisemitism. College protests Trump has signed an executive order to combat antisemitism and pledged to deport non-citizen college students and others who took part in pro-Palestinian protests. Columbia was at the center of college protests in which demonstrators demanded an end to U.S. support for Israel due to the humanitarian crisis caused by Israel’s assault on Gaza. There were allegations of antisemitism and Islamophobia in protests and counter-protests. During last summer’s demonstrations around the country, classes were canceled, some university administrators resigned and student protesters were suspended and arrested. While the intensity of protests has decreased in recent months, there were some demonstrations last week in New York after the expulsion of two students at Columbia University-affiliated Barnard College and after New York Governor Kathy Hochul ordered the removal of a Palestinian studies job listing at Hunter College. A third student at Barnard College has since been expelled, this one related to the occupation of the Hamilton Hall building at Columbia last year. …

State Department    — The United States is drawing a clear distinction between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese people, setting the tone that Washington views Beijing’s government — not the general public — as an adversary in strategic competition, according to an internal document obtained by VOA. This approach largely aligns with the State Department’s public messaging in the later years of U.S. President Donald Trump’s first administration. In recent guidance on China-related terminology, Secretary of State Marco Rubio instructs U.S. embassies and consular posts to use more specific descriptors and avoid “Chinese” as an adjective when its use could imply a negative connotation of the Chinese people, culture or language more broadly. This latest directive follows the removal of references to the Beijing government as the “People’s Republic of China” on the State Department’s website, which now refers to the country simply as “China” in a fact sheet. The internal document instructs the State Department to use “CCP” in public speeches or press releases when discussing government actions, recognizing that the CCP holds ultimate authority over political, economic, military and many other decisions in the country. But when describing China’s malign actions, the document advises against using “Chinese” as an adjective to prevent the perception that the U.S. government attributes those actions to the Chinese people, according to the memo. The U.S. is also advised to avoid using language that reflects the ideology of China’s leader Xi Jinping. Under this directive, Xi should be referred to as “General Secretary” of the Communist Party, rather than “President,” reflecting the supremacy of the party over the state — a practice largely in line with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s approach. In the internal guidance, Rubio reaffirmed the emphasis in the State Department’s fact sheet on U.S. policy toward China, which said the U.S. will address its relationship with China under the principles of “reciprocity and fairness.” Additionally, the State Department should avoid characterizations previously used by former President Joe Biden’s administration, such as “invest-align-compete” and “responsibly managing the relationship” between the U.S. and China. In Beijing, Chinese officials have “strongly deplored and firmly opposed” the changes in the State Department’s factsheet, accusing it of “peddling the so-called China-U.S. strategic competition.” At a briefing on Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said China has “lodged serious protests with the U.S.” following Rubio’s recent media interviews, which Beijing deemed as … “VOA Exclusive: State Department guidance distinguishes CCP from Chinese people” →

Europe is scrambling to take the lead in planning an end to the Ukraine conflict, and U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday paused all military aid to Ukraine after a contentious Oval Office meeting last week where he castigated Ukraine’s leader. Major capitals across nearly all the world’s time zones turned their eye to this conflict and the White House. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from Washington. …

The U.S. skating community came together Sunday for a fundraiser and tribute to the victims of a collision between an American Airlines flight and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter on Jan. 29 over the Potomac River in Washington. Sixty-seven people, all the people on both aircraft, died in the crash, including 28 members of the U.S. figure skating community — 11 young figure skaters, four couches and 13 family members — who had been to the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas. One of the most emotional performances Sunday night was delivered by Maxim Naumov, who skated to a favorite song of his parents, Evgenia Shishkov and Vadim Naumov, who died in the crash. The two-hour Legacy on Ice event was hosted by Olympic figure skating champions Brian Boitano and Kristi Yamaguchi. They and other veteran skaters, including Scott Hamilton and Nathan Chen, also performed. The event began to take shape a week after the crash. Monumental Sports and Entertainment, organizers of the tribute, said they have so far raised $1.2 million for the victims’ families and the first responders. “We continue to be in awe of and grateful to this community, whose compassion and support was out in full force for the ‘Legacy on Ice’ event,” Monumental chairman Ted Leonsis said in a statement. He said the money raised is set to be divided among the families impacted by the collision, first responders and U.S. Figure Skating. The Associated Press reported that almost 500 first responders and approximately 150 family members of the victims were in the audience. NBC is scheduled to broadcast “Legacy on Ice” on March 30. …

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Monday to confirm former wrestling executive Linda McMahon as the nation’s education chief, a role that places her atop a department that President Donald Trump has vilified and vowed to dismantle. McMahon will face the competing tasks of winding down the Education Department while also escalating efforts to achieve Trump’s agenda. Already the Republican president has signed sweeping orders to rid America’s schools of diversity programs and accommodations for transgender students while also calling for expanded school choice programs. At the same time, Trump has promised to shut down the department and said he wants McMahon “to put herself out of a job.” The Senate voted to confirm McMahon, 51-45. A billionaire and former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, McMahon, 76, is an unconventional pick for the role. She spent a year on Connecticut’s state board of education and is a longtime trustee at Sacred Heart University but otherwise has little traditional education leadership. McMahon’s supporters see her as a skilled executive who will reform a department that Republicans say has failed to improve American education. Opponents say she’s unqualified and fear her budget cuts will be felt by students nationwide. “Americans believe in public education,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said before the confirmation vote. “They don’t want to see the Department of Education abolished. If the Trump administration follows through on cuts to education, schools will lose billions in funding.” At her confirmation hearing, McMahon distanced herself from Trump’s blistering rhetoric. She said the goal is to make the Education Department “operate more efficiently,” not to defund programs. She acknowledged that only Congress has the power to close the department, and she pledged to preserve Title I money for low-income schools, Pell grants for low-income college students and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Yet she suggested some operations could move to other departments, saying Health and Human Services might be better suited to enforce disability rights laws. Weeks before McMahon’s confirmation hearing, the White House was considering an executive order that would direct the education secretary to cut the agency as much as legally possible while asking Congress to shut it down completely. Some of McMahon’s allies pressed the White House to hold the order until after her confirmation to avoid potential backlash. Created by Congress in 1979, the Education Department’s primary role is to disburse money to the nation’s schools and colleges. … “Senate confirms education chief McMahon as Trump pushes to close department” →