USAID programs; federal employee layoffs hearing : NPR

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Today’s top stories

The Trump administration is ending nearly all foreign assistance programs operated by the United States Agency for International Development. This decision significantly undermines the agency, which has been active for 60 years and has worked to prevent the spread of disease and reduce poverty in over 120 countries.

• 🎧 The State Department says it has reviewed over 6,000 of USAID’s foreign assistance grantsand only 500 of them will continue, NPR’s Fatma Tanis tells Up First. The programs being kept include food and lifesaving assistance for HIV, TB and malaria. A humanitarian official told Tanis that “this is a global health massacre.” Aid groups and advocates have raised alarms that cuts to USAID’s programs would lead to loss of life — like in Sudan, where over 1,000 kitchens supported by the agency have closed.

Immigrants who were detained at the naval base in Guantánamo Bay say they experienced beatingsmistreatment and constant frisks. They allege this happened during their two weeks at the location earlier this month.

• 🎧 NPR’s Sergio Martínez-Beltrán spoke with two of the menboth 21 years old, who were at the naval base and are now back in Venezuela. Mayfreed Durán Arapé and Yoiner Purroy Roldán said detainees held a five-day hunger strike after they were told they were not allowed to call an attorney. Durán Arapé says soldiers showed up in riot gear. They beat him up and pinned him to the ground. He alleges that he was also tied to a chair 15 times, and things got so bad he tried to die by suicide twice.

If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or is in crisis, call or text 9-8-8 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

Today, a federal judge in San Francisco is expected to hear arguments over whether the Trump administration’s decision to fire thousands of probationary employees should be stopped. It’s one of the legal challenges the administration faces as it moves forward with plans to downsize the federal workforce.

• 🎧 Many workers were told they were being fired for performance reasonseven though some had positive performance reviews and others were not employed long enough to receive a review, NPR’s Andrea Hsu says. Labor unions argue that the agencies had no plans to fire these employees and only did so at the direction of the administration and the Office of Personnel Management. They say that the OPM has overstepped its authority. The OPM provides guidance to agencies but does not have the authority to hire and fire employees of other agencies. Meanwhile, President Trump has repeatedly said he’s revamping the federal workforce to save American taxpayers money.

Today’s listen

Ameya Desai became a fourth-grade winner of NPR’s 2024 Student Podcast Challenge with her entry Far from Home: A Story of Forced Migration. She interviews her grandfather, Kishor Desai, who was born and raised in Uganda after his family left India. In the summer of 1972, the country’s leader, Idi Amin, ordered the mass expulsion of Asians, giving Kishor 90 days to leave Uganda. He was stateless for years before migrating to the U.S., where he got a fresh start. Listen to Kishor’s journey across three continents in his granddaughter’s award-winning podcast.

Deep dive

Some federal workers are wrestling with whether they should resign or hold the line if their boss asks them to do something they consider unethical. This question is not limited to the public sector. When NPR asked listeners about their experiences leaving workplaces that didn’t align with their values, people who had worked at nonprofits, charities, and private companies shared their experiences. But sometimes, staying is the more ethical choiceRutgers philosophy professor Alex Guerrero told Morning Edition Host and Martínez.

• 💼 Guerro says there are cases where it’s important that people stay and look for ways to fight what’s being done within the company.
• 💼 If you leave a role, you could be replaced by somebody who will do the immoral thing.
• 💼 One way very bad things happen in companies is when too many people look the other way. It is possible that you could slow down the things you deem to be immoral from within.

3 things to know before you go

1. The wooly devil, a type of sunflower, is a newly discovered plant species in Big Bend National Park, Texas. This discovery is particularly significant as it simultaneously reveals a new species and genus.
2. Tomorrow, a “planet parade” featuring Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune will be visible at the same time along a line or arc in the sky.
3. Actress Michelle Trachtenberg, who starred in Gossip Girl, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Ice Princess, died yesterday at 39.

This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.