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Thousands of U.S. Agency for International Development workers who have been fired or placed on leave as part of the Trump administration’s dismantling of the agency are being given a brief window Thursday and Friday to clear out their workspaces.USAID placed 4,080 staffers who work across the globe on leave Monday. That was joined by a “reduction in force” that will affect another 1,600 employees, a State Department spokesman said in an emailed response to questions.USAID has been one of the biggest targets so far of a broad campaign by President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency, a project of Trump adviser Elon Musk, to slash the size of the federal government. The actions at USAID leave only a small fraction of its employees on the job.Trump and Musk have moved swiftly to shutter the foreign aid agency, calling its programs out of line with the Republican president’s agenda and asserting without evidence that its work is wasteful. In addition to its scope, their effort is extraordinary because it has not involved Congress, which authorized the agency and has provided its funding.A report from the Congressional Research Service earlier this month said congressional authorization is required “to abolish, move, or consolidate USAID,” but the Republican majorities in the House and the Senate have made no pushback against the administration’s actions. There’s virtually nothing left to fund, anyway: The administration now says it is eliminating more than 90% of USAID’s foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in U.S. assistance around the world.It’s unclear how many of the more than 5,600 USAID employees who have been fired or placed on leave work at the agency’s headquarters building in Washington. A notice on the agency’s website said staff at other locations will have the chance to collect their personal belongings at a later date.The notice laid out instructions for when specific groups of employees should arrive to be screened by security and escorted to their former workspaces. Those being let go must turn in all USAID-issued assets. Workers on administrative leave were told to retain their USAID-issued materials, including diplomatic passports, “until such time that they are separated from the agency.”Many USAID workers saw the administration’s terms for retrieving their belongings as insulting. In the notice, the employees were instructed not to bring weapons, including firearms, “spear guns” and “hand grenades.” Each worker is being given just 15 minutes at their former workstation.The administration’s efforts to slash the federal government are embroiled in various lawsuits, but court challenges to temporarily halt the shutdown of USAID have been unsuccessful.However, a federal judge on Tuesday gave the Trump administration a deadline of this week to release billions of dollars in U.S. foreign aid, saying it had given no sign of complying with his nearly two-week-old court order to ease the funding freeze. Late Wednesday, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked that order, with Chief Justice John Roberts saying it will remain on hold until the high court has a chance to weigh in more fully.That court action resulted from a lawsuit filed by nonprofit organizations over the cutoff of foreign assistance through USAID and the State Department. Trump froze the money through an executive order on his first day in office that targeted what he portrayed as wasteful programs that do not correspond to his foreign policy goals.Virginia Democratic Rep. Gerald Connolly said in a statement that the attack on USAID employees was “unwarranted and unprecedented.” Connolly, whose district includes a sizable federal workforce, called the aid agency workers part of the “world’s premier development and foreign assistance agency” who save “millions of lives every year.” Gary Fields, Associated Press
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Measles cases continue to rise in the United States nearly two and a half decades after the virus had been declared eliminated in the country. Currently, the epicenter of the U.S. measles outbreak is in Texas, where one child has now died from the disease. Heres what to know about the outbreak, how far it has spread, and the symptoms to watch out for. Measles U.S. outbreak map As of the time of this writing, there are more than 130 cases of measles across two states alone, reports Reuters. Those states are Texas and New Mexico. However, while Texas has garnered the headlines due to it having the majority of cases, the disease has been found in other U.S. states since the beginning of this year. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), measles cases have been reported in eight states. The CDCs Measles Cases and Outbreaks page has an interactive map and charts that show the current locations at a range of the number of cases. The CDC updates its outbreak page with new data every Friday, but as of its last update on February 20, 2025, the states with outbreaks reported this year are: Alaska: 1-9 cases California: 1-9 cases Georgia: 1-9 cases New Jersey: 1-9 cases New Mexico: 1-9 cases New York (city): 1-9 cases Rhode Island: 1-9 cases Texas: 50-99 cases As of the pages last update, the CDC says the total known number of cases of measles in the United States since the beginning of the year was 93. The true number is now much higher, with over 130 cases in just New Mexico and Texas alone. Measles sees a steady rise in the United States In 2000, measles was officially declared eliminated from the United States, which was defined as there being no continuous transmission of the disease in the country for more than a year, notes Reuters. Its elimination was a major public health milestone for the country. Of course, in the years since then, people who live in the United States did contract measles, yet nearly all of them caught the disease outside of the country and brought it back home with them. But ever since the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of the anti-vaccine movement, measles has returned to the United States. The CDC says that in 2024 alone, there were 285 cases of measles in the United States. Forty percent of those cases required hospitalization, and more than half of those cases occurred in children under 5 years of age. What’s more, 89% of individuals with measles in the United States in 2024 were either unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status. With more than 130 cases of measles in just two states this year, its looking likely that the number of measles cases in 2025 may surpass the total number of cases in 2024. The 93 cases confirmed by the CDCs February 20 update shows that 30% of them occurred in children under the age of 5, and 52% of them occurred in those aged just 5 to 19 years old. Unvaccinated individuals or individuals whose vaccination status is not known made up 95% of the cases. In all of 2023, there were just 59 cases in the United States. Measles symptoms Measles is a highly contagious disease that spreads via the air, according to the CDC. The virus can linger in the air for up to two hours after an infected person has been there. It can also survive on surfaces. If a person touches those surfaces and then their eyes, nose, or mouth, the virus can be introduced to their system. The CDC says that symptoms of measles start to show about 7-14 days after infection. Initial symptoms include: High fever (may spike to more than 104°) Cough Runny nose (coryza) Red, watery eyes (conjunctivitis) The agency also notes that about 23 days after symptoms appear, the infected may begin to show Koplik spots inside their mouth. Koplik spots are tiny white marks. Then, 35 days after symptoms appear, the infected will usually get a rash, first beginning at their hairline and on their face, and then extending down the body. Is measles deadly? Yes, it can be. As Reuters reports, one child has already been confirmed to have died from the disease in Texas. It is the first U.S. death from measles in a decade. The child was known to be unvaccinated. Besides the potential to be fatal, measles can also have long-lasting or permanent complications. These include pneumonia; encephalitis (which can leave the person deaf or intellectually disabled); complications during pregnancy; and Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), a fatal disease that affects the nervous system. Those most at risk from measles are children under the age of 5, pregnant women, adults older than 20, and people with weakened immune systems. How can I protect myself from measles? The CDC says the best way to protect yourself from measles is by getting vaccinated. There are two measles vaccines available in the United States: The MMR vaccine protects against three diseasesmeasles, mumps, and rubellaand is given in two doses. The MMRV vaccine protects against four diseasesmeasles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (chickenpox)and is given in two doses.
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U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin is planning to cut 65% of his agency’s workforce, a move that came as a surprise to agency staff. Trump revealed the potential EPA staff reduction at the first meeting of his cabinet, where his downsizing czar Elon Musk pledged that he would move quickly to slash federal spending. “I spoke with Lee Zeldin, and he thinks he’s going to be cutting 65 or so percent of the people from environmental [sic],” Trump said. “And we’re going to speed up the process too at the same time.” The EPA did not specify the details of the potential workforce reduction figure that Trump mentioned, but said the agency is focused on cutting federal grants, “reassessing” its real estate footprint and “delivering organizational improvements to the personnel structure.” President Trump and EPA Administrator Zeldin are in lock step in creating a more efficient and effective federal government,” an EPA spokesperson said. News of the 65% target that Trump cited caught agency staff off guard, with its union leadership saying it had not been given advance notice or any detail of the desired cuts. “Mr. Zeldin stated during his confirmation testimony that he pledged ‘to enthusiastically uphold the EPAs missionfoster a collaborative culture within the agency, supporting career staff who have dedicated themselves to this mission,” Joyce Howell, executive vice president of AFGE Council 238 representing EPA employees, told Reuters. “So which is it? Upholding the EPA mission or imposing a reduction in force that makes upholding the EPA mission an impossibility?” So far, the EPA terminated nearly 400 probationary employees and placed nearly 200 employees on leave who worked on environmental justice issues at the agency. A memo released ahead of the cabinet meeting called for a “significant reduction” but did not specify how many workers should be laid off, beyond the 100,000 of the nation’s 2.3 million civilian federal workers who have already taken a buyout or been fired. The unprecedented government overhaul has so far fired more than 20,000 workers, frozen foreign aid, and disrupted construction projects and scientific research, though it has not slowed spending so far. Valerie Volcovici, Reuters
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