USAID employees detail harrowing exits from DR Congo amid violence as Trump administration dismantles agency
CNN
US Agency for International Development employees this week recounted the panic they experienced in the days after they were ordered to return from their assignments in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
US Agency for International Development employees this week recounted the panic they experienced in the days after they were ordered to return from their assignments in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Several employees, as part of a lawsuit filed Tuesday by a group representing the agency’s foreign service members, painted harrowing pictures of their chaotic departures from Kinshasa amid violent protests in the capital city, as President Donald Trump’s administration ended certain foreign assistance programs and placed members of Washington leadership on leave leading to internal disarray and a lack of guidance for staff. Directives in recent weeks for staff around the world to return to the US and employees to be placed on administrative leave came as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to freeze foreign aid and dismantle the agency in an effort to shrink the size of the federal workforce. CNN has reached out to the State Department and USAID for comment. The State Department ordered non-emergency US government personnel and their family members to leave the Democratic Republic of Congo amid escalating violence in the country and its capital city of Kinshasa in late January. The US Embassy in the DRC – which is closed until further notice – advised US citizens in a security alert Tuesday “to shelter-in-place” due to protests in Kinshasa. The embassy urged citizens to “safely depart while commercial options are available.”
President Donald Trump said negotiations to end the Ukraine war will start immediately after holding a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday morning.
The Senate voted Wednesday, to confirm former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence.
Elon Musk acknowledged Tuesday that there might not have been a federal plan to spend $50 million on condoms for Gaza – two weeks after the White House press secretary told the false story at an official briefing and more than a week after the president baselessly doubled the phony figure to $100 million.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday that the war between Ukraine and Russia “must end,” that Kyiv joining NATO is unrealistic, and that the US will no longer prioritize European and Ukrainian security as the Trump administration shifts its attention to securing the US’ own borders and deterring war with China.
The phrase “El que se enoja, pierde,” (“he who gets angry, loses”) is a popular refrain in Mexico.
Officials in Sangamon County, Illinois, have agreed to a $10 million settlement with the family of Sonya Massey –– a Black woman who was shot and killed by law enforcement in her home last year.
The inspector general of the US Agency for International Development was fired on Tuesday, a day after his office released a report critical of the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the agency, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.
President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East is leaving Russia with Marc Fogel, an American teacher who was jailed in Russia and deemed “wrongfully detained” by the United States, according to a statement from National Security Adviser Mike Waltz.
The novelist Salman Rushdie showed a jury his blinded right eye on Tuesday as he testified against the man charged with trying to murder him at a talk at a rural New York venue in 2022.
Conservative firebrand Steve Bannon pleaded guilty to defrauding donors in a fundraising effort to build a wall along the southern US border in a deal that allowed him to avoid prison.
Two American tourists were reportedly bitten by a shark while swimming in the Bahamas, authorities said.
The Trump administration’s effort to cut back on federal funding for the National Institute of Health for research programs at universities and medical systems has been blocked nationwide.
CNN’s 5 Things AM brings you the news you need to know every morning.