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Bondi disbands FBI ‘foreign influence task force’ as Musk boosts Russia-linked hoax smearing USAid and Ben Stiller

Attorney general Pam Bondi dissolved an FBI taskforce aimed at combatting foreign influence operations on Wednesday, the same day that a hoax news report linked to Russia was shared by Donald Trump’s ally, Elon Musk, and his son, Donald Trump Jr.

“To free resources to address more pressing priorities, and end risks of further weaponization and abuses of prosecutorial discretion,” Bondi wrote in a memo to all Justice department employees after she was sworn in on Wednesday, “the Foreign Influence Task Force shall be disbanded.”

The FBI website explains that former director Christopher Wray established the taskforce in 2017 to combat “covert actions by foreign governments to influence US political sentiment or public discourse”.

“The goal of these foreign influence operations directed against the United States is to spread disinformation, sow discord, and, ultimately, undermine confidence in our democratic institutions and values,” according to the FBI.

And as Olga Robinson and Shayan Sardarizadeh of BBC Verify report, Elon Musk shared a viral video with more than 200 million followers on his social media platform X that falsely claims the United States Agency for International Development (USAid) paid more than $40m to Angelina Jolie, Sean Penn, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Orlando Bloom and Ben Stiller to get them to visit Ukraine.

The video, which carries the branding of the NBCUniversal outlet E! News, and follows the style of its celebrity reports, never appeared on any of that outlet’s social media accounts.

The hoax, Robinson reports, “is extremely similar in style” to a Russian influence operation BBC Verify previously exposed that use fictional social media news reports to impersonate media outlets and push anti-Ukraine narratives.

One of the named stars, Stiller, made an effort to combat the disinformation running rampant on Musk’s social-media platform by writing in a post there: “These are lies coming from Russian media. I completely self-funded my humanitarian trip to Ukraine. There was no funding from USAID and certainly no payment of any kind. 100 percent false”.

Despite Stiller’s effort to halt the spread of the hoax news report, it was also shared by Donald Trump Jr and Sidney Powell, known for her leading role in spreading wild conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

As the video began to be debunked, with community notes added to some, but not all of the posts sharing it on X, the Kremlin-funded Russian broadcaster X used the opportunity to engage in a bit of trolling.

RT shared the viral video, but with a caption that read, in part: “No, USAID didn’t pay Angelina Jolie $20m to visit Zelensky. We would gloat about it but source is this single dubious viral video. Enough real scandals without fake news”.

Ellen Weintraub, the chair of the Federal Election Commission, revealed on Thursday that President Trump has sent her a letter telling her that she had been removed from the commission.

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Weintraub, a Democrat appointed to the bipartisan commission by President George W. Bush, posted an image of the letter on X, which was dated 31 Jan.

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“Received a letter from POTUS today purporting to remove me as Commissioner and Chair of the FEC”, Weintraub wrote on Bluesky. “There’s a legal way to replace FEC commissioners-this isn’t it. I’ve been so fortunate to serve the American people and stir up some good trouble along the way. That’s not changing anytime soon”.

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Donald Trump has signed an executive order sanctioning the international criminal court (ICC), the White House has confirmed.

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The text of the order, posted on the White House website, accuses the ICC of having “engaged in illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel” and abused its power by issuing “baseless arrest warrants targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant”.

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According to the order:

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The United States will impose tangible and significant consequences on those responsible for the ICC’s transgressions, some of which may include the blocking of property and assets, as well as the suspension of entry into the United States of ICC officials, employees, and agents, as well as their immediate family members, as their entry into our Nation would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.

n

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Our colleagues on the Middle East live blog are tracking reaction to the order.

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The video, which carries the branding of the NBCUniversal outlet E! News, and follows the style of its celebrity reports, never appeared on any of that outlet’s social media accounts.

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Here’s what has been in the news this afternoon:

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A “DEI watch list” targeting federal employees who work in health equity-related positions spurred fear for the workers’ safety and jobs. Most of the workers included on the list are Black.

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A budget dispute among congressional Republicans could slow their efforts to enact Donald Trump’s legislative agenda. Trump was scheduled to meet with Republican lawmakers on Thursday as they craft a spending bill that could avert a government shutdown in March.

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For the second time in two days, a judge moved Thursday to block Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship. The Seattle judge said Trump viewed the rule of law simply as an “impediment to his policy goals.”

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A judge also temporarily limited Elon Musk’s access to the Treasury’s payment system. The order allows for two of Musk’s associates to access the system – but on a read-only basis.

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Even after a judge delayed a buyout offer for federal employees, Musk’s self-styled Department of Government Accountability (DOGE), continued to pressure workers to quit. Agencies under Musk’s unofficial purview threatened workers with layoffs and implied their jobs could be replaced with artificial intelligence.

n
DOGE reportedly accessed sensitive data from the Department of Education and used artificial intelligence to analyze it. The data reportedly included personal and financial information.

n
The Trump administration has dropped efforts to sanction oligarchs close to Putin. The Joe Biden administration had implemented sanctions on Russian oligarchs in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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Donald Trump is disbanding an effort started after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine to enforce sanctions and target oligarchs close to the Kremlin, Reuters reports.

n A memo from Attorney General Pam Bondi, issued on Wednesday during a wave of orders on her first day in office but not previously reported, said the effort, known as Task Force KleptoCapture, will end as part of a shift in focus and funding to combating drug cartels and international gangs.

n “This policy requires a fundamental change in mindset and approach,” Bondi wrote in the directive, adding that resources now devoted to enforcing sanctions and seizing the assets of oligarchs will be redirected to countering cartels.

n The effort, launched during Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration, was designed to strain the finances of wealthy associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin and punish those facilitating sanctions and export control violations.

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In a statement, Politico’s CEO and editor-in-chief responded to rightwing claims, echoed by Donald Trump and Elon Musk, that the outlet is bankrolled by the US government.

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The outlet clarified that Politico does not receive any government funding, while private companies, organizations and government agencies may pay to subscribe to Politico Pro for specialized reports.

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“They subscribe because it makes them better at their jobs — helping them track policy, legislation, and regulations in real-time with news, intelligence, and a suite of data products,” they wrote in the statement.

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Elon Musk’s associates at the tech billionaire’s self-styled Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have reportedly used artificial intelligence to process sensitive data from the Department of Education.

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According to the Washington Post, the operatives used AI to analyze spending by the Department of Education. Some of the information included sensitive employee and financial data.

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Meanwhile, Donald Trump is reportedly considering executive actions to dismantle the Department of Education, including one proposal to abolish the department entirely. Dozens of employees of the education department were reportedly put on leave following Trump’s orders to ban diversity, equity and inclusion programming in the federal government.

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Even as a judge blocked a buyout offer for federal employees, Elon Musk has continued his effort to push federal workers out of their jobs.

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According to a new report by Politico, officials at the agencies now overseen by Musk’s unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have peppered employees with messages urging them to take the offer – or brace for layoffs. In one email, an official suggested the government would cut “redundant business functions and associated staffing” and was considering implementing artificial intelligence.

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Meanwhile, Musk has continued to regularly share posts throughout the day on X promoting DOGE and the idea that the civil service is rife with fraud.

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A judge has temporarily limited the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (Doge)’s ability to access the highly-sensitive payment system of the US Treasury that Musk’s associates reportedly attempted to use to block USAID payments.

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The ruling marks the first time that the courts have limited DOGE, which, in the last two weeks, has dug into the federal bureaucracy, pushing to shut down USAID and sowing chaos in the civil service.

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It comes in response to unions that represent federal employees accusing the Treasury of unlawfully sharing personal employee data with DOGE. The ruling named two DOGE associates who could be given access to the payment system – but on a read-only basis.

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Here’s a recap of developing news today so far:

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The Senate appears poised to confirm the nomination of Russell Vought to lead the powerful Office of Management and Budget, despite intense Democratic opposition. Senate Democrats held an overnight floor session in the senate to deliver speeches decrying Vought, an architect of Project 2025 who would likely attempt to further consolidate executive authority under Trump if confirmed.

n
Trump attended the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, an annual gala, where he said he had plans to create a task force to root out “anti-Christian bias” and floated possible changes to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

n
The deadline for federal workers to accept offered buyouts approaches tonight, leaving federal employees to wonder whether the promised benefits are really on offer, and whether they will be laid off if they choose to stay – a possibility floated to the press by top Trump officials.

n
CNN reported that top associates of Elon Musk sought to use the highly-sensitive Treasury payment system to block funding for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), sparking fears of overreach by the unelected government employee and his staff.

n
Trump is expected to sanction the International Criminal Court in an executive order, accusing the court of improperly investigating the US and Israel. In November, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top Hamas leadership.

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A federal judge said he stood ready to enforce his order for the Trump administration to end its freeze on federal grant funding. States have reported programs like Head Start still struggling to access their funding despite the Trump administration rescinding its pause on such funding and a court order to do the same.

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Donald Trump will reportedly sanction the International Criminal Court (ICC) by executive order Thursday over the court’s investigations into the US and Israel.

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The ICC issued simultaneous arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defense minister and top Hamas military leadership in November 2024. The US rejected the court’s warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest and Netanyahu visited the country this week.

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According to new reporting by CNN, associates of Elon Musk sought to use the highly-sensitive Treasury payment system to block funding for the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

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According to the report, a Musk associate asked the acting Treasury secretary, David Lebryk, to stop USAID payments using the Treasury’s internal payment system. When Lebryk pushed back, saying he lacked the “legal authority” to do so, Musk’s lieutenant suggested it would be illegal for Lebryk not to comply.

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Donald Trump said Thursday that he wants to root out “anti-Christian bias” in the US, announcing that he was forming a task force led by Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate the “targeting” of Christians, the Associated Press reports.

Speaking at pair of events in Washington surrounding the the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump said the task force would be directed to “immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government, including at the DOJ, which was absolutely terrible, the IRS, the FBI — terrible — and other agencies.”

n Trump said Bondi would also work to “fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society and to move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide.”

n The president’s comments came after he joined the National Prayer Breakfast at the Capitol, a more than 70-year-old Washington tradition that brings together a bipartisan group of lawmakers for fellowship, and told lawmakers there that his relationship with religion had “changed” after a pair of failed assassination attempts last year and urged Americans to “bring God back” into their lives.

n An hour after calling for “unity” on Capitol Hill, though, Trump struck a more partisan tone at the second event across town, announcing that, in addition to the task force, he was forming a commission on religious liberty, criticizing the JoeBiden administration for “persecution” of believers for prosecuting anti-abortion advocates.

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During their protest of Russell Vought’s confirmation, Senate Democrats sounded the alarm about Vought’s role in drafting Project 2025 and his support for vastly expanding the power of the president.

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Vought, said Wisconsin senator Tammy Baldwin at 10:30 pm eastern time on Wednesday, “has openly called for the president to defy congress and take control of federal funding decisions that are constitutionally vested in the legislative branch.”

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Schiff accused the Trump administration of unlawfully attempting to break down the separation of powers and said Vought would play a role in aiding that effort.

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“This is an effort to try to consolidate power, all the power of this government, in the hands of Donald Trump and a few of his hand-picked very wealthy, billionaire friends,” said California Democrat Adam Schiff.

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“Russell Vought is an extremist who will betray working families, will betray your family, and there’s simply no other way to put it,” said Nevada senator Jacky RosenThursday morning. “After all, he was the main architect behind [the] Project 2025 agenda.”

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Russell Vought, a key Trump ally who helped architect the Heritage Foundation’s notorious Project 2025 – a strategy document laying out plans for a rightwing presidency – is an experienced Washington operative. He filled the role of OMB director at the end of Trump’s first term and when the president left office, founded a thinktank and began plotting out policy ideas for a possible second Trump term.

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His think tank, called Center for Renewing America, has advocated for the use of the Insurrection Act to send the military to the US-Mexico border, and for the president to take unprecedented control over the budgetary process – which is legally controlled by Congress.

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In addition to his experience in DC, Vought is known for his far-right and Christian nationalist beliefs, and has reportedly planned to infuse them into Trump’s administration.

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According to reporting by ProPublica and the research group Documented, Vought has advocated for a strategy to demoralize and reduce the size of the civil service by villainizing them.

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“We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected,” he reportedly said. “When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains.”

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At the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, Donald Trump alluded to possible changes to the Federal Aviation Administration.

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Trump spoke about the catastrophic crash that killed 67 on a passenger jet and Army helicopter that collided midair near Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington 29 January.

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“You need one company with one set of equipment,” he said. “There are some countries that have unbelievable air controller systems, and bells would’ve gone off when that helicopter literally even hit the same height.”

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Transportation secretary Sean Duffy said at an event Wednesday that Elon Musk planned to make drastic changes to the air traffic control system. Musk’s intervention in the foreign assistance agency USAID, has involved mass spending freezes and thousands of layoffs of contractors.

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Democrats held the senate floor overnight last night to protest the nomination of Russell Vought to head the Office of Management and Budget.

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The Senate has been in session since 10:30 am eastern time on Wednesday, with Democratic senators holding speeches throughout the night to denounce Donald Trump’s nominee. Vought, who directed the OMB once before, during Trump’s first term, was a key figure in drafting Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation strategy document that envisions a dramatic consolidation of power by the executive branch.

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If confirmed, Vought would lead the office that issued a memo to freeze federal grant funding two weeks into Trump’s presidency. Although Vought did not head the OMB at the time that the memo was issued, it neatly matched his vision for the executive branch wresting control of the budgetary process.

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“They are refusing to let Russell Vought pillage programs like Head Start, like Meals on Wheels, like so many others,” said California senator Alex Padilla Thursday morning. “A question to my colleagues across the aisle: who are you more loyal to, your own constituents, or a reckless president?”

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Vought is expected to be confirmed at 7pm Thursday.

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}],”data”:{“alt”:”An encampment of tents for Palestinians displaced by the current conflict on the beach in Khan Younis.”,”caption”:”An encampment of tents for Palestinians displaced by the current conflict on the beach in Khan Younis.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Haitham Imad/EPA”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Donald Trump has said no US soldiers would be needed to enforce his plan for the US to take control of Gaza.

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“The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting,” he wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform.

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He said the Palestinians in Gaza would have “already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region” and would “actually have a chance to be happy, safe, and free”.

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“The U.S., working with great development teams from all over the World, would slowly and carefully begin the construction of what would become one of the greatest and most spectacular developments of its kind on Earth,” he said.

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“No soldiers by the U.S. would be needed! Stability for the region would reign!!!”

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Good morning and welcome to our US politics blog, where still much of the focus is on Donald Trump’s comments on Tuesday that the US could “take over” Gaza.

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The suggestion has been met with anger and blunt rejection from regional allies and a warning against “ethnic cleansing” from the head of the UN.

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Trump officials, meanwhile, appeared intent to walk back his position and you can follow developments in our Middle East live blog here

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Of course, there are still many other foreign and domestic developments as Trump’s second term gets under way.

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On Wednesday, Trump signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports and threatening to cut off federal funding for any school that allows trans women or girls to compete in female-designated sporting competitions

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Meanwhile, a federal judge who already questioned the constitutionality of Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order is set to hear arguments today over a longer-term pause of the directive, which aims to end citizenship for children born to parents not legally in the country.

n US District Judge John Coughenour’s case in Seattle comes just a day after a Maryland federal judge issued a nationwide pause in a separate but similar case.

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On tariffs, the first of 10,000 troops Mexico promised to send to its northern border after Trump agreed to delay the imposition of tariffs have arrived. Trump has said he wants the country to do more to stop the flow of fentanyl and illegal migration into the US. He has also delayed measures against Canada but is continuing with his China tariffs.

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And Trump’s nominee for US trade representative, Jamieson Greer, will appear before a Senate confirmation hearing today. Greer, who served as chief of staff to the trade representative in Trump’s first term, has previously backed trade deal with a number of other countries, including the UK, and is expected to say he would focus on securing jobs that pay American workers well.

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We’ll be bringing you more on these issues and all other US politics news through the day.

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Trump acts to remove chair of Federal Election Commission

Ellen Weintraub, the chair of the Federal Election Commission, revealed on Thursday that President Trump has sent her a letter telling her that she had been removed from the commission.

Weintraub, a Democrat appointed to the bipartisan commission by President George W. Bush, posted an image of the letter on X, which was dated 31 Jan.

Musk and Trump plan to fire more than 97% of USAid staff, according to reports from Reuters and the New York Times.

The Times reports:

The Trump administration will reduce the number of workers at the U.S. Agency for International Development from more than 10,000 to about 290 positions, three people with knowledge of the plans said on Thursday.

The small remaining staff includes employees who specialize in health and humanitarian assistance, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to publicly discuss the cuts.

Four sources familiar with the plan told Reuters “only 294 staff at the agency would be allowed to keep their jobs, including only 12 in the Africa bureau and eight in the Asia bureau”.

Atul Gawande, who led global health programs at USAid, shared a screenshot from an internal email on the planned cuts and wrote that secretary of state, Marco Rubio claims that USAid’s “lifesaving assistance for health and humanitarian needs will continue. But his team just communicated that the entire agency will be imminently reduced from 14,000 to 294 people. Just 12 in Africa”.

“We already see the shutdown’s cost,” Gawande added in a thread on Twitter/X. “Kids with drug-resistant TB, turned away from clinics, are not just dying – they’re spreading the disease. People around the world w HIV, denied their medicine, will soon start transmitting virus. The damage is global”.

Gawande wrote that one veteran foreign service officer told him: “Our government is attacking us. This is worse than any dictatorship where I’ve worked”.

Lois Beckett

A memorial service today for three people who died in the Eaton Canyon wildfire in Los Angeles was marked by simmering anger at Donald Trump’s choice not to visit Altadena, a town with a historic Black community that was devastated by the fire.

Two weeks ago, Trump toured damaged areas of the Pacific Palisades, a much wealthier area of Los Angeles, and spoke to affected residents there, but did not come east to visit victims in Pasadena or Altadena, where 17 people were killed.

Speaking to a full room at Pasadena’s First African Methodist Episcopal church, Rev Al Sharpton, the veteran civil rights activist, criticized Trump for his suggestions this week that the US take over Gaza, while not having met with the victims of the wildfires in Altadena, which razed entire blocks, including an estimated half of Altadena’s Black households.

“You’re the president of the United States. You ain’t the president of Gaza!” Sharpton said. “You got a whole community burned down that needs to be investigated. What happened? What started it and why did it expand, and why did some folk get noticed seven hours before other folks got notice? I’ve got stuff for you to do! You want to be the president, then act like the president.”

“Now you want to take Gaza. Why don’t you take here?” Sharpton also said. “Want to take something? Take Altadena. Make it the Riviera of California.”

Earlier, civil rights attorney Ben Crump had referenced Trump’s choice sarcastically.

“We were confused as to why he didn’t come to Altadena, one of the hard-hit affected areas,” Crump said. “We don’t know his reasons why he didn’t come to Altadena – ”

“You know why!” someone in the audience called out.

Rev Larry Campbell of Pasadena’s First AME Episcopal church said that 54 families in the church’s congregation had their homes destroyed in the fire, while more suffered serious damage. Family members of Erliene Kennedy, Rodney Nickerson and Evelyn McClendon spoke at the service.

“The people in this town deserve as much respect and regard and attention and accountability as anybody anywhere,” Sharpton said. “We stand with those in the Palisades and the Hollywood Hills, but let everybody stand with us, too.”

Trump signs executive order imposing US sanctions on the ICC

Donald Trump has signed an executive order sanctioning the international criminal court (ICC), the White House has confirmed.

According to the order:

The United States will impose tangible and significant consequences on those responsible for the ICC’s transgressions, some of which may include the blocking of property and assets, as well as the suspension of entry into the United States of ICC officials, employees, and agents, as well as their immediate family members, as their entry into our Nation would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.

Our colleagues on the Middle East live blog are tracking reaction to the order.

Bondi disbands FBI ‘foreign influence task force’ as Musk boosts Russia-linked hoax smearing USAid and Ben Stiller

The video, which carries the branding of the NBCUniversal outlet E! News, and follows the style of its celebrity reports, never appeared on any of that outlet’s social media accounts.

Doge staffer installed at treasury resigns after Wall Street Journal uncovers racist posts.

Marko Elez, a 25-year-old engineer who obtained access to a treasury department payments system as part of his work for Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” initiative, reportedly resigned on Thursday after The Wall Street Journal asked the White House about a deleted social media account that advocated for racism and eugenics.

According to the Journal, recent posts on an account that once used the handle @marko_elez called for the repeal of the Civil Rights Act and supported a “eugenic immigration policy” just before Trump returned to office and empowered Musk to take a sledgehammer to federal agencies.

‘You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity,’ the account wrote on X in September, according to a Wall Street Journal review of archived posts. ‘Normalize Indian hate,’ the account wrote the same month, in reference to a post noting the prevalence of people from India in Silicon Valley.

“Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool”, the account holder posted in July.

A lawyer for the government confirmed in federal court on Wednesday that Elez, who had previously worked for Musk at SpaceX, Starlink and X, had access to US treasury payment systems that contain the sensitive personal information of millions of Americans.

Sources told Wired earlier this week, that Elez had been granted the ability “not just to read but to write code on two of the most sensitive systems in the US government: the Payment Automation Manager and Secure Payment System at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS). Housed on a secure mainframe, these systems control, on a granular level, government payments that in their totality amount to more than a fifth of the US economy.”

Summary of the day so far

Here’s what has been in the news this afternoon:

A “DEI watch list” targeting federal employees who work in health equity-related positions spurred fear for the workers’ safety and jobs. Most of the workers included on the list are Black.
A budget dispute among congressional Republicans could slow their efforts to enact Donald Trump’s legislative agenda. Trump was scheduled to meet with Republican lawmakers on Thursday as they craft a spending bill that could avert a government shutdown in March.
For the second time in two days, a judge moved Thursday to block Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship. The Seattle judge said Trump viewed the rule of law simply as an “impediment to his policy goals.”
A judge also temporarily limited Elon Musk’s access to the Treasury’s payment system. The order allows for two of Musk’s associates to access the system – but on a read-only basis.
Even after a judge delayed a buyout offer for federal employees, Musk’s self-styled Department of Government Accountability (DOGE), continued to pressure workers to quit. Agencies under Musk’s unofficial purview threatened workers with layoffs and implied their jobs could be replaced with artificial intelligence.
DOGE reportedly accessed sensitive data from the Department of Education and used artificial intelligence to analyze it. The data reportedly included personal and financial information.
The Trump administration has dropped efforts to sanction oligarchs close to Putin. The Joe Biden administration had implemented sanctions on Russian oligarchs in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

After Donald Trump issued an executive order to ban diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, dozens of workers have been fired from their positions in the civil service.

In an attempt to aid in the purge, a Heritage Foundation-linked group published a list of employees who work in health equity, most of whom are Black, and asked Trump to fire them.

The “DEI watch list,” created by the rightwing nonprofit American Accountability Foundation, included the photos and work history of the employees it targeted – causing the workers to fear for their safety.

Trump halts effort to sanction oligarchs close to the Kremlin

Donald Trump is disbanding an effort started after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine to enforce sanctions and target oligarchs close to the Kremlin, Reuters reports.

A memo from Attorney General Pam Bondi, issued on Wednesday during a wave of orders on her first day in office but not previously reported, said the effort, known as Task Force KleptoCapture, will end as part of a shift in focus and funding to combating drug cartels and international gangs.

“This policy requires a fundamental change in mindset and approach,” Bondi wrote in the directive, adding that resources now devoted to enforcing sanctions and seizing the assets of oligarchs will be redirected to countering cartels.

The effort, launched during Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration, was designed to strain the finances of wealthy associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin and punish those facilitating sanctions and export control violations.

Politico clarifies it is not funded by government after rightwing claims

In a statement, Politico’s CEO and editor-in-chief responded to rightwing claims, echoed by Donald Trump and Elon Musk, that the outlet is bankrolled by the US government.

Musk’s Doge uses AI to process sensitive education department information – report

According to the Washington Post, the operatives used AI to analyze spending by the Department of Education. Some of the information included sensitive employee and financial data.

Democratic lawmakers are seeking an inquiry into possible security breaches by Elon Musk and his operatives, reports the Guardian’s Richard Luscombe:

Democrats are demanding an investigation into potential national security breaches created by Elon Musk’s takeover of certain federal agencies through his self-styled “department of government efficiency” (Doge).

In a letter published on Thursday, the members of the House oversight committee say they are worried that Musk and his operatives have illegally accessed classified information and sensitive personal data at agencies including the office of personnel management (OPM), the US treasury and the US Agency for International Development (USAid).

“There is no evidence that he, or any of his associates working under the ‘Doge team’ moniker, are entitled to access our government systems, nor is there any evidence that they have undergone the proper vetting to ensure the security of taxpayer and government data,” the letter said.

Musk’s Doge continues efforts to push out federal workers despite judge ruling on buyout – report

Even as a judge blocked a buyout offer for federal employees, Elon Musk has continued his effort to push federal workers out of their jobs.

Meanwhile, Musk has continued to regularly share posts throughout the day on X promoting DOGE and the idea that the civil service is rife with fraud.

Judge temporarily limits Doge’s access to highly sensitive treasury payment system

A judge has moved to block Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship in the US, the second such ruling in two days.

On Thursday, the Seattle judge, John Coughenour, told reporters, “It has become ever more apparent that to our president the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals.”

Wednesday, a judge temporarily paused Trump’s order, which sought to prevent the US-born children of undocumented immigrants from obtaining automatic citizenship. The fourteenth amendment protects birthright citizenship, a right that was recognized by the US supreme court in 1898.

Donald Trump is meeting with congressional Republican leadership Thursday to discuss a budget bill that has generated conflict within the GOP caucus.

The proposed spending bill will attempt to turn Trump’s agenda into legislation, touching on immigration, energy and taxes, and while the senate Republican leadership has signaled they are ready to move forward with a two-part piece of legislation, Trump has suggested he prefers a single measure to deliver his agenda.

The conflict underscores how narrow the Republicans’ majority in the house is: with 218 Republicans to 215 Democrats, the Republicans need nearly every vote to pass legislation.

The Heritage Foundation funded the group compiling a list of federal employees to be targeted for firing under the Trump administration, the Guardian’s Rachel Leingang reports: A rightwing group that has created a series of blacklists to target federal workers it believes the Trump administration should fire has received funding for the project by the thinktank behind Project 2025.

A recent list created by the American Accountability Foundation called the “DEI Watch List” includes mostly Black people with roles in government health roles alleged to have some tie to diversity initiatives. Another targets education department employees in career roles who “cannot be trusted to faithfully execute the agenda of the elected President of the United States”. One calls out the “most subversive immigration bureaucrats”.

Tom Jones, the president of the American Accountability Foundation, said the organization had plans to add to its existing lists and create more. The group was designed to go after the “DC bureaucrats and leftist organizations” that had been allowed “to subvert, obstruct, and sabotage the America First agenda”, according to its website.

Summary of the day so far

Here’s a recap of developing news today so far:

The Senate appears poised to confirm the nomination of Russell Vought to lead the powerful Office of Management and Budget, despite intense Democratic opposition. Senate Democrats held an overnight floor session in the senate to deliver speeches decrying Vought, an architect of Project 2025 who would likely attempt to further consolidate executive authority under Trump if confirmed.
Trump attended the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, an annual gala, where he said he had plans to create a task force to root out “anti-Christian bias” and floated possible changes to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The deadline for federal workers to accept offered buyouts approaches tonight, leaving federal employees to wonder whether the promised benefits are really on offer, and whether they will be laid off if they choose to stay – a possibility floated to the press by top Trump officials.
CNN reported that top associates of Elon Musk sought to use the highly-sensitive Treasury payment system to block funding for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), sparking fears of overreach by the unelected government employee and his staff.
Trump is expected to sanction the International Criminal Court in an executive order, accusing the court of improperly investigating the US and Israel. In November, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top Hamas leadership.
A federal judge said he stood ready to enforce his order for the Trump administration to end its freeze on federal grant funding. States have reported programs like Head Start still struggling to access their funding despite the Trump administration rescinding its pause on such funding and a court order to do the same.

A federal judge on Thursday said he stood ready to enforce an order he issued blocking Donald Trump’s administration from freezing federal grants, loans and other financial assistance after Democratic-led states said billions of dollars in funding was still being tied up, Reuters reports.

US District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, during a virtual court hearing, said state agencies had a “rightful concern” that they were still not able to fully access money nearly a week after he issued his temporary restraining order.

He issued that 31 January order at the behest of Democratic attorneys generals from 22 states and the District of Columbia, determining it was necessary even after the White House’s Office of Management and Budget rescinded its wide-ranging directive that had announced the funding freeze.

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