A federal judge in California ruled late Thursday President Trump and Elon Musk’s mass firings of probationary government employees were illegal, siding with a coalition of labor unions and nonprofit groups. Judge William Alsup ordered the Office of Personnel Management to retract memos directing numerous agencies to fire an estimated total of 200,000 workers, and to inform department heads that the OPM has no such authority. But he stopped short of ordering a halt to the firings, leaving that move up to the affected agencies.

The news came just as a wave of layoffs was underway at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. Hundreds of probationary employees working on crucial climate and weather projects lost their jobs. It’s not clear if Judge Alsup’s ruling will lead to the reversal of those or any other firings.

In related news, a federal judge in Virginia ruled that the Trump administration can fire dozens of CIA and intelligence officers who worked on diversity programs.

Earlier Thursday, the Trump administration announced it was cutting 90% of USAID’s overseas contracts and $60 billion in U.S. assistance around the world. The move will terminate funding for critical polio, HIV, malaria and nutrition programs, among other things. Thousands of USAID employees were given 15 minutes to clear out their desks. Peers and supporters greeted fired workers as they left the building.

Amanda Nataro: “I worry about the people that have gone this many days without food, without medicine, without the humanitarian assistance that we promised them.”

USAID employee: “Talk to the average American. Do they want to see people dying because of assistance cut off? You know, there would have been a very clear and particular way to reform the foreign assistance sector in this country, to reform USAID. And frankly, a lot of people sort of wanted to see that.”

The Trump administration canceled a planned FDA meeting of the federal vaccine advisory committee next month that was set to determine the composition of next season’s flu shots. It’s the second canceled vaccine panel meeting since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. became health and human services secretary. Click here to see our interview with a pediatrician in Texas, where there’s a measles outbreak.

Beijing pledged to retaliate after Trump said the U.S. would slap another 10% tariff increase on Chinese goods starting next Tuesday, March 4. Trump also said Thursday 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico will go into effect on Tuesday after a one-month pause. Both Canada and Mexico have vowed retaliatory tariffs. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum says her government is still in talks with the U.S. in hopes of heading off a trade war.

President Claudia Sheinbaum: “We know President Trump has his way of communicating and setting negotiation timings and joint work. We must think we can reach an agreement.”

This comes as European nations slammed Trump’s 25% tariff threat on EU goods as “irresponsible” and blasted Trump’s comments Thursday.

President Donald Trump: “I mean, look, let’s be honest: The European Union was formed in order to screw the United States. That’s the purpose of it. And they’ve done a good job of it. But now I’m president.”

Meanwhile, Trump indicated the U.K. would be spared from any sort of U.S.-instigated trade war as he met with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the White House Thursday.

During Starmer and Trump’s Oval Office meeting, Trump also appeared to soften his stance on Ukraine, saying he has “a lot of respect” for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He also suggested the presence of U.S. workers in Ukraine to exploit rare earth minerals would provide security from Russian troops. Trump was also asked about his recent remarks calling Zelensky a “dictator.”

Reporter: “Mr. President, do you still think that Mr. Zelensky is a dictator?”

President Donald Trump: “Did I say that? I can’t believe I said that. Next question.”

Zelensky is meeting with Trump in Washington, D.C., today.

Hamas is calling on the international community to put pressure on Israel as Gaza ceasefire talks resume in Cairo and the first phase of the agreement is set to expire on Saturday.

On Thursday, Israel released — after a delay — the remaining 46 Palestinian prisoners of the latest captives swap. Twenty-four of those were children. This is Nidaa Abu Sahloul, mother of one of the released children.

Nidaa Abu Sahloul: “Mohammed has been detained for 420 days. He has spent the second birthday in prison. Praise be to God that he was released after all this wait.”

In Israel, an internal probe has acknowledged the military’s “complete failure” to prevent Hamas’s October 7 attacks, which killed over 1,000 people and saw another 200 taken hostage.

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces shot and killed another Palestinian child. Sixteen-year-old Hamed Mohammad Fadel Nazzal was shot near the northern Qalqilya checkpoint, becoming the 17th Palestinian child to be killed by Israel in the West Bank since the start of 2025.

Here in the U.S., Axios is reporting House Foreign Affairs Chair Brian Mast has instructed Republican committee staff to refer to the West Bank by its biblical name Judea and Samaria. It’s the latest attempt to deny Palestinians’ rights in the Israeli-occupied territory.

In Turkey, the jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan has called on his followers in the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, to lay down arms and dissolve their organization — paving the way for the first ceasefire since a peace process collapsed in 2015. Since 1984, Turkey has waged a counterinsurgency campaign against the PKK in Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated southeast region, where fighting has killed more than 40,000 people.

Meanwhile, the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces group, which controls northeastern Syria, said Öcalan’s directive does not apply to his organization.

Mazloum Abdi: “This issue is related to the PKK, the issue of laying down arms, and it has nothing to do with us, and it is not directed at us and our forces. But if this operation succeeds, we will also benefit from it, because Turkey has concerns about the PKK, and because of the PKK, Turkey is attacking our regions. And because the PKK will dissolve itself and lay down its arms, then there will be no danger to Turkey, and there will be no excuse to attack our regions.”

Turkey’s military has repeatedly attacked Kurdish forces in Syria, including the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, which Turkey considers part of the PKK.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, at least 11 people were killed and dozens injured after explosions at a mass rally held by the Rwanda-backed M23 group in Bukavu. M23 leaders accused Congolese security forces of orchestrating the attack. Survivors described the chaotic scene.

Musanga Tambwe: “A plastic bag was thrown in front of us over there. We didn’t know what was inside. We were just looking at it. Suddenly, there was an explosion. Poof! We fell to the ground and ran away.”

Some 7,000 people have been killed by the escalating violence since January, with hundreds of thousands displaced from their homes. Click here to see our coverage of the DRC.

Thailand has deported 40 Uyghur asylum seekers to China, ignoring warnings from human rights groups that they will likely face torture and imprisonment if returned. The group of asylum seekers fled China, seeking protection in Thailand, where they were instead arrested in 2014 and detained for over a decade. This is U.N. high commissioner for human rights spokesperson Liz Throssell.

Liz Throssell: “Their deportation violates the principle of non-refoulement for which there is a complete prohibition in cases where there is a real risk of torture, ill-treatment or other irreparable harm upon their return.”

China has been accused of human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims that may amount to crimes against humanity

In news from Europe, Austria’s three main centrist parties reached a deal Thursday to form a new ruling coalition without involving the far-right Freedom Party that won Austria’s parliamentary elections five months ago.

Meanwhile, Germany’s conservative Christian Democratic Union, which won last Sunday’s elections, and the center-left Socialist Democratic Party are launching coalition talks today. The far-right Alternative for Germany party came in second place, but all other parties have ruled out forming a coalition with the AfD.

World leaders have agreed to establish a global fund aimed at protecting biodiversity and preventing the worst impacts of nature loss by 2030. The deal by negotiators at the U.N. biodiversity summit in Rome, known as COP16, came after days of marathon negotiations. The deal comes as global wildlife populations have plunged by more than 70% over the last four decades, largely due to human activity. Questions remain on the establishment of the fund and the commitment from Global North nations, which are largely responsible for the worsening climate crisis.

Back in the U.S., the House and Senate voted to overturn an EPA rule that would have required oil companies to pay fees for emitting methane, a potent greenhouse gas known as a “super pollutant.” The measure came as part of 2022’s Inflation Reduction Act but had not yet gone into effect. The rule was expected to bring in billions of dollars.

Elon Musk has called for the cancellation of Verizon’s $2.4 billion contract to upgrade the Federal Aviation Administration’s air traffic control system, following reports the FAA is close to reassigning the work to Musk’s internet satellite company Starlink. Last week, Musk shipped about 4,000 Starlink terminals to the FAA. That prompted criticism from Massachusetts Democratic Senator Ed Markey, who said the move “creates an appearance of a conflict of interest.” Last month, Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced he’d assigned SpaceX engineers to “modernize” U.S. air traffic control systems following the deadly crash of an American Airlines flight as it approached Washington, D.C.’s Reagan National Airport.

In Iowa, hundreds of protesters took to the Capitol building in Des Moines to defend trans rights as lawmakers passed an unprecedented bill stripping civil rights protections based on gender identity. Iowa state Representative Aime Wichtendahl — the first transgender woman elected to Iowa’s Legislature — spoke out against the bill from the House floor.

Rep. Aime Wichtendahl: “This bill revokes protections to our jobs, our homes and our ability to access credit. In other words, it deprives us of our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. I bring this up because the purpose of this bill, and the purpose of every anti-trans bill, is to further erase us from public life and to stigmatize our existence. The sum total of every anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ bill is to make our existence illegal.”

A self-described misogynist who’s accused by Romanian authorities of human trafficking and rape has arrived in the United States after the Trump administration lifted travel restrictions on him. Andrew Tate, a far-right social media influencer and prominent Trump supporter, returned to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Thursday along with his brother Tristan, who also faces human trafficking charges in Romania. The pair’s return came after Romania’s foreign minister told the AP a Trump administration official expressed interest in the brothers’ case at the recent Munich Security Conference.

Here in New York, two men were pronounced dead just hours apart Wednesday at a maximum-security prison in Westchester County as a wildcat strike by guards across dozens of prisons in the state continues for a second week. Anthony Douglas, who was 67, and 35-year-old Franklyn Dominguez, were both found unresponsive in their cells inside the Sing Sing Correctional Facility.

Their death comes days after 61-year-old Jonathan Grant was also found dead at another prison, where guards have walked off the job. Click here to see our recent interview on the strike with Jose Saldaña, director of Release Aging People in Prison.

Consumers across the U.S. are taking part in a 24-hour “economic blackout” today. The campaign, organized by The People’s Union, is urging U.S. customers to refrain from shopping, in particular from major corporations like Amazon and Walmart, in order to “take back control of our economy, government and future of our country.”