AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EST
USAID direct hires put on leave worldwide, except those deemed essential
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Trump administration is placing U.S. Agency for International Development direct-hire staffers around the world on leave except those deemed essential, upending the aid agency´s six-decade mission overseas.
A notice posted online Tuesday gives the workers 30 days to return home. The move had been rumored for several days and was the most extreme of several proposals considered for consolidating the agency into the State Department. Other options had included closures of smaller USAID missions and partial closures of larger ones.
Thousands of USAID employees already had been laid off and programs worldwide shut down after President Donald Trump imposed a sweeping freeze on foreign assistance. In the space of a few weeks, Trump political appointees and Elon Musk´s budget-slashing Department of Government Efficiency have dismantled the aid agency despite outcry from Democratic lawmakers.
They have ordered a spending stop that has paralyzed U.S.-funded aid and development work around the world, gutted the senior leadership and workforce with furloughs and firings, and closed Washington headquarters to staffers Monday. Lawmakers said the agency´s computer servers were carted away.
"Spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper," Musk boasted on X.
___
Trump won't rule out deploying US troops to support rebuilding Gaza, sees 'long-term' US ownership
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump on Tuesday suggested that displaced Palestinians in Gaza be permanently resettled outside the war-torn territory and proposed the U.S. take "ownership" in redeveloping the area into "the Riviera of the Middle East."
Trump´s brazen proposal appears certain to roil the next stage of talks meant to extend the tenuous ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and secure the release of the remaining hostages held in Gaza.
The provocative comments came as talks are ramping up this week with the promise of surging humanitarian aid and reconstruction supplies to help the people of Gaza recover after more than 15 months of devastating conflict. Now Trump wants to push roughly 1.8 million people to leave the land they have called home and claim it for the U.S., perhaps with American troops.
"The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too," Trump said at an evening news conference with Netanyahu by his side. The president who made his name as a New York real estate developer added: "We´ll make sure that it´s done world-class. It´ll be wonderful for the people - Palestinians, Palestinians mostly, we´re talking about."
Trump outlined his thinking as he held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, where the two leaders also discussed the fragile ceasefire and hostage deal in the Israeli-Hamas conflict and shared concerns about Iran.
___
At least 10 killed at adult education center in what officials say is Sweden's worst mass shooting
At least 10 people, including the gunman, were killed Tuesday at an adult education center in what Sweden´s prime minister called the country´s worst mass shooting. But a final death toll, a conclusive number of wounded and a motive hadn´t yet been determined hours later.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson gave a news conference in the aftermath of the tragedy, which happened on the outskirts of Orebro. The city is about 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of Stockholm.
The school, called Campus Risbergska, serves students over age 20, according to its website. Primary and upper secondary school courses are offered, as well as Swedish classes for immigrants, vocational training and programs for people with intellectual disabilities.
"Today, we have witnessed brutal, deadly violence against completely innocent people," Kristersson told reporters in Stockholm. "This is the worst mass shooting in Swedish history. Many questions remain unanswered, and I cannot provide those answers either.
"But the time will come when we will know what happened, how it could occur, and what motives may have been behind it. Let us not speculate," he said.
___
Trump´s tariff tactics carry higher economic risks than during his first term
WASHINGTON (AP) - When Donald Trump started the biggest trade war since the 1930s in his first term, his impulsive combination of threats and import taxes on U.S. trading partners created chaos, generated drama -- and drew criticism from mainstream economists who favor free trade.
But it didn´t do much damage to the U.S. economy. Or much good. Inflation stayed under control. The economy kept growing as it had before. And America´s massive trade deficits, the main target of Trump´s ire, proved resistant to his rhetoric and his tariffs: Already big, they got bigger.
The trade war sequel that Trump has planned for his second term - if it unfolds the way he's described it - would likely be a different matter altogether. Trump appears to have grander ambitions and is operating in a far more treacherous economic environment this time.
His plans to plaster tariffs of 25% on goods from Mexico and Canada and 10% on China - and to follow those up by targeting the European Union - would threaten growth, and push up prices in the United States, undermining his campaign pledge to eliminate the inflation that plagued President Joe Biden.
The tariffs would be paid by U.S. importers, who would then try to pass along the higher costs to consumers through higher prices.
___
India PM Modi's party seeks to oust anti-corruption crusader in New Delhi state elections
NEW DELHI (AP) - Thousands begin voting in the Indian capital´s state legislature election on Wednesday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi´s Hindu nationalist party trying to unseat a powerful regional group that has ruled New Delhi for over a decade.
Voters walked to polling booths on a cold, wintry morning to cast their ballots across the sprawling capital. Manish Sisodia, a key Aam Aadmi Party leader, and others offered prayers in a temple before voting.
Modi´s Bharatiya Janata Party is up against the AAP, led by Arvind Kejriwal, which runs New Delhi and has built a vast support base on its welfare policies and an anti-corruption movement. Kejriwal, a popular crusader against corruption, suffered a setback as he himself faced graft allegations.
The AAP won 62 out of 70 seats in a landslide victory in the last election, held in 2020. leaving BJP with only eight and the Congress party with none. The AAP had also swept the 2015 state elections, winning 67 seats, with the BJP taking three.
Modi and Kejriwal have both campaigned vigorously in roadshows with thousands of supporters tailing them. They have offered to revamp government schools and provide free health services and electricity, and a monthly stipend of over 2,000 rupees ($25) to poor women.
___
Remains of all 67 victims of the midair collision near DC recovered as NTSB probes altitude data
ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) - The remains of all 67 victims of last week's midair collision of an American Airlines flight and an Army helicopter near the nation's capital have been recovered, authorities said Tuesday. All but one has been identified.
Meanwhile the NTSB said it was examining new data that could put the helicopter above its 200-foot (61-meter) flight ceiling. The airport's air traffic control screen - relying on radar sensors and other data - had it at 300 feet (91 meters), the agency said. However that figure would have been rounded to the nearest 100 feet, according to authorities.
Investigators said they need to get more information from the still-submerged Black Hawk to verify the data.
The jet´s flight recorder showed its altitude as 325 feet (99 meters), plus or minus 25 feet (7.6 meters).
Earlier in the day, crews working in choppy conditions raised a number of large pieces of the jetliner from the Potomac River, including the right wing, the center fuselage and parts of the forward cabin, cockpit, tail cone and rudder.
___
El Salvador´s offer to take in US deportees and violent criminals is unlike any other migrant deal
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) - El Salvador has offered to take in people deported from the U.S. for entering the country illegally and to house some of the country´s violent criminals - even if they´re American citizens.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, after a meeting Monday with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, proclaimed it the most "unprecedented, extraordinary" offer the country has yet received during the ongoing wave of global migration.
Details on the deal are scant, and immigration and constitutional experts question its legality. Here´s what you need to know:
Bukele, who took office in 2019, says he´s offering a release valve for America's vast prison system.
Writing on X, he said the Central American nation will allow the U.S. to "outsource" part of its inmate population, but it will only take in convicted criminals.
___
Elon Musk tightens grip on federal government as Democrats raise alarms
WASHINGTON (AP) - Elon Musk is rapidly consolidating control over large swaths of the federal government with President Donald Trump ´s blessing, sidelining career officials, gaining access to sensitive databases and dismantling a leading source of humanitarian assistance.
The speed and scope of his work has been nothing short of stunning. In a little more than two weeks since Trump took office, the world´s richest man has created an alternative power structure inside the federal government for the purpose of cutting spending and pushing out employees. None of this is happening with congressional approval, inviting a constitutional clash over the limits of presidential authority.
Musk has been named as a special government employee, which subjects him to less stringent rules on ethics and financial disclosures than other workers. Trump has given Musk office space in the White House complex where he oversees a team of people at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. The team has been dispersed throughout federal agencies to gather information and deliver edicts. Some of them were spotted on Monday at the Department of Education, which Trump has vowed to abolish.
Republicans defend Musk as simply carrying out Trump´s slash-and-burn campaign promises. Trump made no secret of his desire to put Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur behind the electric automaker Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX, in charge of retooling the federal government.
"Elon can´t do and won´t do anything without our approval," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday.
___
The Aga Khan, spiritual leader of Ismaili Muslims and a philanthropist, dies at 88
PARIS (AP) - The Aga Khan, who became the spiritual leader of the world´s millions of Ismaili Muslims at age 20 as a Harvard undergraduate and poured a material empire built on billions of dollars in tithes into building homes, hospitals and schools in developing countries, died Tuesday. He was 88.
His Aga Khan Development Network and the Ismaili religious community announced that His Highness Prince Karim Al-Hussaini, the Aga Khan IV and 49th hereditary imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims, died in Portugal surrounded by his family.
His successor was designated in his will, which will be read in the presence of his family and religious leaders in Lisbon before the name is made public. A date has not been announced. The successor is chosen from among his male progeny or other relatives, according to the Ismaili community's website.
Considered by his followers to be a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan IV was a student when his grandfather passed over his playboy father as his successor to lead the diaspora of Shia Ismaili Muslims, saying his followers should be led by a young man "who has been brought up in the midst of the new age."
Over decades, the Aga Khan evolved into a business magnate and a philanthropist, moving between the spiritual and the worldly with ease.
___
Waffle House is passing along the sky high cost of eggs to diners with a 50 cent surcharge
NEW YORK (AP) - The Waffle House restaurant chain is putting a 50 cent per egg surcharge in place because of the biggest bird flu outbreak in a decade.
The 24-7 restaurant said that the resulting egg shortage has led to a dramatic increase in its costs.
Bird flu is forcing farmers to slaughter millions of chickens a month, pushing U.S. egg prices to more than double their cost in the summer of 2023. And it appears there may be no relief in sight with Easter approaching.
The average price per dozen eggs nationwide hit $4.15 in December. That is not quite as high as the $4.82 record set two years ago, but the Agriculture Department predicts egg prices are going to soar another 20% this year.
The Waffle House, a reliable source of a cheap breakfast, said that its egg surcharge became effective this week and that it applies to all of its menus. The restaurant's two-egg breakfast, which comes with toast and a side, was listed at $7.75 on Tuesday.
