White House fires USAID inspector general after warning about funding oversight, officials say
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House fired the inspector general for the U.S. Agency for International Development on Tuesday, U.S. officials said, a day after his office warned that the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID had made it all but impossible to monitor $8.2 billion in unspent humanitarian funds.
The White House gave no reason for the firing of Inspector General Paul Martin, one of the officials said. The officials were familiar with the dismissal but not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Inspectors general are typically independently funded watchdogs attached to government agencies and tasked with rooting out waste, fraud and abuse. The Trump administration earlier purged more than a dozen inspectors general.
On Monday, Martin's office issued a flash report warning that the Trump administration's freeze on all foreign assistance and moves to cut USAID staff had left oversight of the humanitarian aid “largely nonoperational."
That includes the agency’s ability to ensure none of the funding falls into the hands of violent extremist groups or goes astray in conflict zones, the watchdog said.
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After meeting with Trump, Jordan's king says his country opposes displacing Palestinians in Gaza
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump hosted Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House on Tuesday and renewed his insistence that Gaza could somehow be emptied of all residents, controlled by the U.S. and redeveloped as a tourist area.
It's an audacious, but highly unlikely, scheme to dramatically remake the Middle East and would require Jordan and other Arab nations to accept more Gazans — something Abdullah reiterated after their meeting that he opposes.
The pair met in the Oval Office with Secretary of State Marco Rubio also on hand. The president suggested he wouldn't withhold U.S. aid to Jordan or Egypt if they don't agree to dramatically increase the number of people from Gaza they take in.
“I don’t have to threaten that. I do believe we’re above that," Trump said. That contradicted the Republican president's previous suggestion that holding back aid from Washington was a possibility.
Abdullah was asked repeatedly about Trump's plan to clear out Gaza and overhaul it as a resort on the Mediterranean Sea. He didn't make substantive comments on it and didn't commit to the idea that his country could accept large numbers of Gazans.
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Netanyahu threatens to resume fighting in Gaza if hostages aren't released Saturday
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday threatened to withdraw from the ceasefire in Gaza and directed troops to prepare to resume fighting Hamas if the militant group does not r elease more hostages on Saturday.
Hamas said Monday — and reiterated Tuesday — that it planned to delay the release of three more hostages after accusing Israel of failing to meet the terms of the ceasefire, including by not allowing an agreed-upon number of tents and other aid into Gaza.
Amid the mounting tensions, U.S. President Donald Trump emboldened Israel to call for the release of even more remaining hostages on Saturday.
After meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House on Tuesday, Trump predicted Hamas would not release all the remaining hostages as he had demanded.
“I don’t think they’re going to make the deadline, personally,” the president said of Hamas. “They want to play tough guy. We’ll see how tough they are.”
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Vance offers an 'America First' argument on AI deregulation in his first foreign policy speech
PARIS (AP) — In his first big moment on the world stage, Vice President JD Vance delivered an unmistakable message: the United States under the 47th president has room for you on the Trump train — but it also has no problem leaving you behind.
Vance, speaking at the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris on Tuesday, hewed closely to President Donald Trump's “America First” outlook as he spoke of maintaining U.S. dominance in the surging industry.
He also pressed European nations to step back from “excessive regulation” of the AI sector that he said “could kill a transformative industry just as it’s taking off.”
“Now, just because we’re the leader doesn’t mean we want to or need to go it alone,” Vance said. “But to create that kind of trust, we need international regulatory regimes that fosters the creation of AI technology rather than strangles it. And we need our European friends in particular to look to this new frontier with optimism rather than trepidation.”
The message was centered on AI, but the tone and substance of Vance's remarks fall in line with a Trump administration that has been approaching policymaking — and it opponents — with the attitude that it's a juggernaut that will not be stopped.
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Russia releases imprisoned American Marc Fogel in what US calls a step toward the end of Ukraine war
WASHINGTON (AP) — Marc Fogel, an American teacher who was deemed wrongfully detained by Russia, has been released in what the White House described as a diplomatic thaw that could advance negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
Steve Witkoff, a special envoy for President Donald Trump, left Russian airspace with Fogel, a history teacher from Pennsylvania, and he's expected to be reunited with his family by the end of the day.
Fogel was arrested in August 2021 and was serving a 14-year prison sentence. His family and supporters said he had been traveling with medically prescribed marijuana, and he was designated by President Joe Biden’s administration as wrongfully detained in December.
Michael Waltz, Trump's national security adviser, said the U.S. and Russia “negotiated an exchange” to ensure Fogel's release. He did not say what the U.S. side of the bargain entailed. Previous negotiations have occasionally involved reciprocal releases of Russians by the U.S. or its allies.
Waltz said the development was “a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine.” Trump, a Republican, has promised to find a way to end the conflict.
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Appeals court rejects Trump administration push to reinstate spending freezes on grants and loans
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court on Tuesday rejected a Trump administration push to reinstate a sweeping pause on federal funding, a decision that comes after a judge found the administration had not fully obeyed an earlier order.
The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals turned back the emergency appeal, the latest in a string of court losses that is increasingly frustrating top administration officials as it slows President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging agenda.
The appeals court also said it expected the lower court judge to clarify his original order. The Trump administration quickly pushed to withhold Federal Emergency Management Agency money sent to New York City to house migrants, saying it had “significant concerns” about the spending under a program appropriated by Congress.
The Justice Department had previously asked the appeals court to let it implement sweeping pauses on federal grants and loans, calling the lower court order to keep promised money flowing “intolerable judicial overreach.”
U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island is presiding over a lawsuit from nearly two dozen Democratic states filed after the administration issued a boundary-pushing memo purporting to halt all federals grants and loans, worth trillions of dollars. The plan sparked chaos around the country.
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New York City's mayor has 4 months to persuade Democratic voters he's not Trump's puppet
New York City Mayor Eric Adams declared Tuesday that he is “no longer facing legal questions” after the Justice Department moved to shield him from the bribery charges that have been hanging over his reelection campaign.
But now, with the Democratic primary just four months away, he faces a seemingly impossible political balancing act.
The Democrat may have to continue pleasing Republican President Donald Trump with his policies and public statements to keep the charges from being revived — while simultaneously convincing voters in a deep-blue city that he's still his own man.
Adams' fraught position is owed to a section of the extraordinary Justice Department memo that ordered prosecutors to drop the case but left open the possibility that the charges could be brought back.
In the memo, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove told prosecutors in New York not to take "additional investigative steps” against the mayor until after the November election — when the new top prosecutor in the district will review the case and could potentially reinstate charges.
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California's insurer for people without private coverage needs $1 billion more for LA fires claims
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s plan that provides insurance to homeowners who can’t get private coverage needs $1 billion more to pay out claims related to the Los Angeles wildfires, the state Insurance Department said Tuesday.
The FAIR Plan is an insurance pool that all the major private insurers pay into, and the plan then issues policies to people who can’t get private insurance because their properties are deemed too risky to insure. The plan, with high premiums and basic coverage, is designed as a temporary option until homeowners can find permanent coverage, but more Californians are relying on it than ever. There were more than 452,000 policies on the Fair Plan in 2024, more than double the number in 2020.
The plan says it's expecting a loss of roughly $4 billion from the Eaton and Palisades Fires, which sparked Jan. 7, destroyed nearly 17,000 structures and killed at least 29 people. Roughly 4,700 claims have been filed as of this week, and the plan has already paid out more than $914 million.
Under a FAIR Plan request approved by the state Tuesday, all insurers doing business in California will have to bear half the cost and can pass on the rest to all policyholders in the form of a one-time fee. Insurers can collect that cost in the next two years. The state Insurance Department must approve those costs.
State officials didn't immediately have details on how large the fee would be. In approving the request, the state allowed the plan to send out notices and collect funding from marketplace insurers within 30 days.
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NASA's 2 stuck astronauts may return to Earth sooner under new plan
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s two stuck astronauts may end up back on Earth a little sooner than planned.
The space agency announced Tuesday that SpaceX will switch capsules for upcoming astronaut flights in order to bring Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams home in mid-March instead of late March or April. That will shave at least a couple weeks off their prolonged stay at the International Space Station, which hit the eight-month mark last week.
“Human spaceflight is full of unexpected challenges,” NASA’s commercial crew program manager Steve Stich said in a statement.
The test pilots should have returned in June on Boeing’s Starliner capsule after what should have been a weeklong flight demo. But the capsule had so much trouble getting to the space station that NASA decided to bring it back empty and reassigned the pair to SpaceX.
Then SpaceX delayed the launch of their replacements on a brand new capsule that needed more prepping, which added more time to Wilmore and Williams’ mission.
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Westminster Kennel Club dog show gears up to crown a champion
NEW YORK (AP) — Thousands of dogs. Hundreds of breeds. And just one top dog will be crowned at the Westminster Kennel Club show Tuesday night.
The best in show trophy will be awarded around 11 p.m. in New York to one of seven finalists.
Four finalists were chosen Monday: a bichon frisé called Neal, a whippet and repeat runner-up known as Bourbon, a shih tzu called Comet who’s been a finalist before, and a German shepherd named Mercedes, who came in second last year.
Three more finalists will be selected Tuesday evening at Madison Square Garden. Among the dogs who advanced to the semifinals is Penny the Doberman, who was picked as best of her breed.
Despite her dignified, focused appearance, Penny can be “a mush,” said breeder and co-owner Theresa Connors-Chan of Ontario, Canada. “She’s bossy, but she’s lovely.”
The Associated Press
