US President Donald Trump has fired the independent inspector general for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), US media outlets reported on Wednesday.

Paul Martin’s dismissal came a day after his office issued a report critical of the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the agency, the Washington Post, CNN and others reported.

They cited a two-sentence email from the White House sent on Tuesday to Martin telling him his position was “terminated, effective immediately,” but with no explanation of the reasons for the decision.

His office’s report had warned that more than $489 million in food assistance was at risk of spoilage or potential diversion after the Trump administration implemented an aid freeze and stop-work order.

The report said it had long “identified significant challenges and offered recommendations to improve Agency programming to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse.”

“However, recent widespread staffing reductions across the Agency… coupled with uncertainty about the scope of foreign assistance waivers and permissible communications with implementers, has degraded USAID’s ability to distribute and safeguard taxpayer-funded humanitarian assistance.”

Trump had already fired 18 inspectors general, who are independent watchdogs of the federal government, but Martin — appointed by Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden — had remained in place.

Trump, who began his second term last month, has launched a crusade led by his top donor Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, to downsize or dismantle swaths of the US government.

The most concentrated fire has been on USAID, the primary organization for distributing US humanitarian aid around the world with health and emergency programs in around 120 countries.

USAID manages a budget of $42.8 billion — representing 42 percent of humanitarian aid disbursed worldwide.

It was seen as a vital source of soft power for the United States in its struggle for influence with rivals including China.

The Trump administration has frozen foreign aid, ordered thousands of internationally based staff to return to the United States, and begun slashing the USAID headcount of 10,000 employees to around only 300.

Labor unions are challenging the legality of the onslaught. A federal judge ordered a pause on Friday to the administration’s plan to put 2,200 USAID workers on paid leave by the weekend.

Democrats say it would be unconstitutional for Trump to shut down government agencies without the legislature’s approval.

(AFP/Channels)

The wreckage of a plane matching the description of one that went missing Thursday afternoon was found on sea ice in Alaska on Friday, Feb. 7, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

All 10 aboard – nine passengers and the pilot flying the single-engine turboprop plane – did not survive the apparent crash, the Coast Guard told the Anchorage Daily News.

“Our thoughts are with those affected by this tragic incident,” the Coast Guard said in a statement.

Initially, a Coast Guard spokesperson told the Associated Press that crews had not been able to fully open what they believe to be Bering Air Flight 445, which had been traveling from Unalakleet to Nome.

“Right now we just know that there’s three,” Cameron Snell told the Associated Press about the people believed to be inside the single-engine turboprop plane.

Unalakleet and Nome are about 150 miles apart, separated by the Norton Sound, south of the Arctic Circle.

In a Thursday post on social media, the Coast Guard said the plane had been about 12 miles offshore when its position was lost.

The Nome Volunteer Fire Department said in a Facebook post early Friday, Feb. 7, that search and rescue teams as well as the Coast Guard, National Guard and U.S. Air Force had expanded their search for the missing aircraft.

The fire department said it was conducting a ground search inland and along the coast, while the National Guard and Coast Guard were conducting grid searches of ice-covered seas by air.

The FBI agents were also assisting in the search, using cellphone tracking data of the passengers to help locate the plane.

At a press briefing Friday afternoon, Benjamin McIntyre-Coble, assistant incident management chief with the U.S. Coast Guard District 17, said that “an item of interest” had been located, and that search crews were headed to the location of the item. He would not speculate about what might have been found.

David Olson, Bering Air’s director of operations, told the Associated Press that the plane left Unalakleet at 2:37 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 6, and lost radio contact about 38 minutes later.

McIntyre-Coble said radar forensic data showed that at approximately 3:18 p.m., the plane “experienced some kind of event that caused a rapid loss of elevation and rapid loss of speed.”

The fire department said that the pilot of the missing plane had told Anchorage air traffic control that “he intended to enter a holding pattern while waiting for the runway to be cleared.”

According to the National Weather Service, there was light snow, freezing drizzle and mist around Nome Airport on Thursday evening.

Danielle Tessen, a spokeswoman for Alaska’s Transportation Department, told the New York Times that the runway at Nome Airport that the plane had been approaching had been open throughout the day, and that de-icing operations took place “when no aircraft were on approach or near the airport.”

According to the flight-tracking site Flightradar24, the plane’s last position was received at 3:16 p.m. local time, roughly 10 minutes before it was scheduled to arrive in Nome

The Alaska Department of Public Safety said in a statement that state troopers were contacted by the U.S. Coast Guard about “an overdue aircraft” at 4 p.m. local time Thursday, and that search and rescue crews were working to determine the plane’s last known coordinates.

The identities of those on board have not been released, but all of their families have been notified, the Coast Guard said Friday.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has strongly condemned an executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump imposing punitive sanctions on its officials, calling it an attack on the court’s independence and impartiality.

The executive order, issued on Thursday, threatens “tangible and significant consequences” for ICC officials involved in investigations deemed a risk to U.S. national security or its allies, including Israel.

It follows the ICC’s November decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes in Gaza, alongside a warrant for former Hamas commander Mohammed Deif.

The U.S. and Israel do not recognise the ICC’s jurisdiction, though 125 countries are parties to the Rome Statute, which established the court in 2002.

The U.S. order warns that ICC actions against Israel and preliminary probes into U.S. personnel “set a dangerous precedent” and could endanger American and allied officials.

Potential sanctions include asset freezes, property seizures, and entry bans for ICC officials and their families.

A similar effort to impose sanctions against the ICC in January stalled in the U.S. Senate.

In a statement, the ICC denounced the move, vowing to stand by its personnel and continue delivering justice to victims of atrocities worldwide.

It urged international partners, civil society, and member states to unite in defense of justice and fundamental human rights. (NAN)