A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to temporarily lift a three-week funding freeze that has shut down U.S. aid and development programs worldwide.

Judge Amir Ali issued the order Thursday in U.S. District Court in Washington in a lawsuit brought by two health organizations that receive U.S. funding for programs abroad.

In his order, Ali noted that the Trump administration argued it had to shut down funding for the thousands of U.S. Agency for International Development aid programs abroad to conduct a thorough review of each program and whether it should be eliminated.

However, administration officials “have not offered any explanation for why a blanket suspension of all congressionally appropriated foreign aid, which set off a shockwave and upended” contracts with thousands of nonprofit groups, businesses and others “was a rational precursor to reviewing programs,” the judge said.

The ruling was the first to temporarily roll back a Trump administration funding freeze on foreign assistance that has forced USAID and State Department contractors around the world to stop providing humanitarian aid and other assistance and lay off staff, paralyzing much of the world’s aid delivery networks.

The order allowing funds to flow again applies to existing contracts before Trump issued his Jan. 20 executive order declaring a freeze on foreign assistance. Trump called much of U.S. aid out of line with his agenda.

Minnesota joins suit over Musk’s actions

Attorneys general from Minnesota and 13 other states challenged the authority of billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency to access sensitive government data and exercise “virtually unchecked power” in a lawsuit filed Thursday.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, says the actions taken by Musk at the helm of DOGE can only be taken by a nominated and Senate-confirmed official. It sites constitutional provisions that delineate the powers of Congress and the president.

The attorneys general said the court should bar Musk from issuing orders to anyone in the executive branch outside DOGE and declare that his actions have no legal effect.

They asked the court to order Musk to identify ways that “any data obtained through unlawful agency access was used,” destroy “such unauthorized access in his or DOGE’s possession” and bar Musk and DOGE from ordering changes in the disbursement of public funds, canceling government contracts, taking steps to dismantle agencies and more.

Judge halts Trump ban on trans youth care

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s recent executive order aimed at restricting gender-affirming health care for transgender people under age 19.

The judge’s ruling came after a lawsuit was filed earlier this month on behalf of families with transgender or nonbinary children who allege their health care has already been compromised. A national group for family of LGBTQ+ people and a doctors organization are also plaintiffs in the court challenge, one of many lawsuits opposing a slew of executive orders Trump has issued as he seeks to reverse the policies of former President Joe Biden.

Judge Brendan Hurson, who was nominated by Biden, granted the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order following a hearing in federal court in Baltimore. The restraining order, which lasts 14 days but could be extended, essentially puts Trump’s directive on hold while the case proceeds.

State Dept. shelves $400M Tesla order

The State Department said Thursday that it had put plans to buy armored electric vehicles on hold after reports that the $400 million order would go to Tesla, whose CEO, Elon Musk, is one of President Donald Trump’s most important advisers and supporters.

The agency pushed back against suggestions that the purchase was designed to benefit Musk, saying in a statement that the plans stemmed from a request by the Biden administration “to explore interest from private companies to produce armored electric vehicles.”

“The solicitation is on hold and there are no current plans to issue it,” the State Department said.

The planned purchase was listed in the department’s procurement forecast for 2025, which is designed to give businesses a chance to compete for projects. The document was published in December, after Trump won the election but before he took office.

Tesla’s name was removed from the document after the existence of the list was reported late Wednesday.

EPA to rescind $20B in Biden climate grants

In a major reversal, the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency said he will try to rescind $20 billion in grants awarded by the Biden administration for climate and clean-energy projects.

In a video posted on X, Administrator Lee Zeldin said the EPA would revoke contracts for a still-emerging “green bank” that is set to fund tens of thousands of projects to fight climate change and promote environmental justice.

The program, approved under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, is formally known as the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, but is more commonly called the green bank. Two initiatives, worth $14 billion and $6 billion respectively, are intended to offer competitive grants to nonprofits, community development banks and other groups for projects with a focus on disadvantaged communities.

The program is a favorite of Democrats who passed President Joe Biden’s signature climate law without a single Republican vote, and former EPA Administrator Michael Regan frequently cited it as one of his major accomplishments.

Republicans in Congress have called the green bank a “slush fund” and voiced concern over how the money will be used and whether there will be sufficient accountability and transparency.

‘Transgender’ scrubbed from Stonewall website

References to transgender people were removed Thursday from a National Park Service website for the Stonewall National Monument, a park and visitor center in New York that commemorates a 1969 riot that became a pivotal moment for the LGBTQ+ rights movement.

The changes were made in the wake of an executive order President Donald Trump signed on his first day in office calling for the federal government to define sex as only male or female.

“This is just cruel and petty,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, posted on X. “Transgender people play a critical role in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights — and New York will never allow their contributions to be erased.”

The monument in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village section is based in a tiny park across the street from the Stonewall Inn, a bar that became ground zero for the gay rights movement on June 28, 1969, when gay and transgender patrons and neighborhood residents fought back against a police raid.

The park service website on Thursday was still filled with information about the uprising, including photographs of noted transgender activists.

But the words “transgender” and “queer” had been deleted from text that had been on the site.

Also, the letters T and Q were cut from various references to the acronym LGBTQ and replaced with phrases like the “LGB rights movement” or “LGB civil rights.”

Trump settles lawsuit against Musk’s X

President Donald Trump has settled a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s X over the social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, banning him after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The settlement was for about $10 million, the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the confidential arrangement. Some of the money was expected to go to Trump’s legal fees, with the balance directed to his future presidential library. It’s the latest instance of a large corporation agreeing to make large payments to the president to settle litigation, as Trump has threatened retribution on his critics and rivals.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the settlement. X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Musk, who bought Twitter in 2022 and renamed it to X, spent more than $200 million helping boost Trump’s 2024 presidential effort and has joined the administration to lead Trump’s efforts to radically shrink and transform the federal bureaucracy.

Trump holds up wildfire mitigation funding

President Donald Trump’s administration is holding up money for wildfire mitigation projects funded through legislation championed by his Democratic predecessor, threatening efforts to prevent catastrophic blazes like the ones that recently ripped through Southern California.

The decision undermines Trump’s repeated insistence that communities need to clear combustible materials like fallen branches and undergrowth — “it’s called management of the floor,” he said while visiting Los Angeles last month — to guard against wildfires.

Elizabeth Peace, a spokesperson for the Interior Department, said via email that mitigation work is “currently undergoing review to ensure consistency” with Trump’s executive orders.

The scrutiny is being applied only to projects using money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, two centerpieces of former President Joe Biden’s administration.

Deported migrants are sent to Panama

Panama has received the first U.S. flight carrying deportees from other nations as the Trump administration takes Panama up on its offer to act as a stopover for expelled migrants, the Central American nation’s president said Thursday.

“Yesterday a flight from the United States Air Force arrived with 119 people from diverse nationalities of the world,” President José Raúl Mulino said Thursday in his weekly press briefing. He said there were migrants from China, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan, among others, aboard.

The president said it was the first of three planned flights that were expected to total about 360 people.

The migrants were expected to be moved to a shelter in Panama’s Darien region before being returned to their countries, Mulino said.

Fourth judge blocks Trump citizenship order

A federal judge in Boston on Thursday blocked an executive order from President Donald Trump that would end birthright citizenship for the children of parents who are in the U.S. illegally, becoming the fourth judge to do so.

The ruling from U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin came three days after U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante in New Hampshire blocked the executive order and follows similar rulings in Seattle and Maryland.

Sorokin said in a 31-page ruling that the “Constitution confers birthright citizenship broadly, including to persons within the categories described” in the president’s executive order.

— News service reports