A federal judge on Thursday paused the deadline for millions of federal workers to decide whether to accept the offer from President Donald Trump's administration to resign with the promise of months of full pay, as a fight over the lawfulness of the buyout push goes forward.
US District Judge George O’Toole announced at a brief hearing that he would block the administration implementing the offer until he holds another conference on February 10 on a longer-term halt.
Mr O’Toole said that he was barring US officials from carrying out the directive to allow time for “proper consideration” of the issues.
Federal employees will receive formal notice of the judge’s order, a US Justice Department lawyer confirmed during the hearing. More than 40,000 employees − representing about 2 per cent of the workforce − had signed up for the resignation offer ahead of the February 6 deadline, according to Bloomberg.
Billionaire Elon Musk, who heads the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, has been tasked by Mr Trump with eliminating government waste. To that end, federal employees received the buyout offer on January 28 by email − in messaging that was similar to the message Mr Musk had sent to employees of the social media platform Twitter after he bought it and renamed it X.
The message said US employees who took the offer would not be expected to continue performing their jobs and would keep their pay and benefits through until September. It included language that the unions described as “barely veiled threats” of being fired if they did not resign.
The unions contend that the administration caused “sheer chaos” by trying to import “Musk’s questionable private-sector business model to the federal government”. They argued the resignation offer was a pretext to clear out positions across federal agencies to refill with new hires “on an ideological basis”.
The challengers to Mr Musk's order argued that a temporary reprieve was needed because they would be “irreparably harmed by long-lasting impacts of the rushed and ill-informed choice … foisted upon their members”.
Caught up in the battle is the future of the US Agency for International Development, which helps to administer US foreign aid. After taking office, Mr Trump ordered a freeze on foreign aid, pending review, and employees of USAID worldwide were placed on leave.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced this week that he is now the acting administrator of USAID, amid rumours the independent agency could be moved under his department's authority.
The move has raised alarm not only among employees but also countries that depend on US aid to alleviate poverty and provide jobs.
Mr Musk has described USAID as a “criminal organisation” that was “beyond repair”.
“Time for it to die,” he said in a post on X.
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
MATCH INFO
Sheffield United 3
Fleck 19, Mousset 52, McBurnie 90
Manchester United 3
Williams 72, Greenwood 77, Rashford 79
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
HAJJAN
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Federer's 19 grand slam titles
Australian Open (5 titles) - 2004 bt Marat Safin; 2006 bt Marcos Baghdatis; 2007 bt Fernando Gonzalez; 2010 bt Andy Murray; 2017 bt Rafael Nadal
French Open (1 title) - 2009 bt Robin Soderling
Wimbledon (8 titles) - 2003 bt Mark Philippoussis; 2004 bt Andy Roddick; 2005 bt Andy Roddick; 2006 bt Rafael Nadal; 2007 bt Rafael Nadal; 2009 bt Andy Roddick; 2012 bt Andy Murray; 2017 bt Marin Cilic
US Open (5 titles) - 2004 bt Lleyton Hewitt; 2005 bt Andre Agassi; 2006 bt Andy Roddick; 2007 bt Novak Djokovic; 2008 bt Andy Murray
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Common OCD symptoms and how they manifest
Checking: the obsession or thoughts focus on some harm coming from things not being as they should, which usually centre around the theme of safety. For example, the obsession is “the building will burn down”, therefore the compulsion is checking that the oven is switched off.
Contamination: the obsession is focused on the presence of germs, dirt or harmful bacteria and how this will impact the person and/or their loved ones. For example, the obsession is “the floor is dirty; me and my family will get sick and die”, the compulsion is repetitive cleaning.
Orderliness: the obsession is a fear of sitting with uncomfortable feelings, or to prevent harm coming to oneself or others. Objectively there appears to be no logical link between the obsession and compulsion. For example,” I won’t feel right if the jars aren’t lined up” or “harm will come to my family if I don’t line up all the jars”, so the compulsion is therefore lining up the jars.
Intrusive thoughts: the intrusive thought is usually highly distressing and repetitive. Common examples may include thoughts of perpetrating violence towards others, harming others, or questions over one’s character or deeds, usually in conflict with the person’s true values. An example would be: “I think I might hurt my family”, which in turn leads to the compulsion of avoiding social gatherings.
Hoarding: the intrusive thought is the overvaluing of objects or possessions, while the compulsion is stashing or hoarding these items and refusing to let them go. For example, “this newspaper may come in useful one day”, therefore, the compulsion is hoarding newspapers instead of discarding them the next day.
Source: Dr Robert Chandler, clinical psychologist at Lighthouse Arabia
