USAID Ruling, Ukraine On Trump Putin Agreement, Gaza Ceasefire Collapse
13:32 Share

I was just asked, back boys or in sync? Back boys. Backstreet boys. Sorry, Backstreet boys. That's a tough question. One that you'd have to tell it to my heart. You are so corny.

A federal judge says Elon Musk did not have the authority to dismantle a key U.S. agency. Critics of the unelected billionaire hope it reigns in his influence in government, but will it change what's already been done? I'm Leila Faldin, that's A. Martinez, and this is Up First from NPR News.

Within hours of President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin announcing a limited ceasefire, Russia and Ukraine launched strikes at each other. So is this agreement changing anything? And Israel broke the ceasefire in a surprise attack that was one of the deadliest in the entire Gaza war. The Israeli government says it's a pressure tactic to get hostages home. But do most Israelis want a return to war? Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day.

This message comes from NPR sponsor, 1Password.

If you bypass security to save yourself some time, you're not alone. Fortunately, with 1Password Extended Access Management, security and productivity no longer have to be at odds. 1Password Extended Access Management ensures that whatever device your employees use for work, it's healthy and uncompromised. Get started today, securing every app, device, and identity, even the unmanaged ones. For a free two-week trial, visit 1Password.com slash first.

A federal judge has ruled that Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency likely violated the Constitution when they effectively shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development. But President Trump is promising to appeal the decision, calling the judge rogue for interfering in Doge's efforts.

to effectively shut down USAID. For the past six weeks, the Trump administration has been dismantling the agency. It's now a shadow of its former self. Here to tell us more about what this new court decision means for the administration and for USAID, we're joined now by NPR's Fatma Tanis. So tell us about the case that prompted this ruling.

So a couple dozen USAID employees and contractors sued Elon Musk and Doge, saying that their actions to dismantle the agency were reckless, they were done in a slash-and-burn manner, and that Musk and Doge didn't have the authority because Musk is not an appointed agency head who wasn't confirmed by the Senate. Now, this case is one of several other ongoing lawsuits around the dismantling of USAID, and

And it stands out because it directly sued Elon Musk and Doge, whereas other lawsuits have named President Trump and senior officials as well. The defense argued that Musk and Doge were only advising USAID officials and that the agency's leaders were actually responsible for what happened. Yeah, but the judge disagreed.

Yeah, he didn't buy it. Judge Theodore Chuang wrote a 68-page opinion detailing why. He said that the evidence showed that, quote, Musk made the decisions to shut down USAID's headquarters and website, even though he lacked the authority to make that decision. He said that Musk and Doge team members likely violated the Constitution in multiple ways and deprived Congress of its authority to decide what to do, quote,

with an agency that it created. Okay, so what does this all mean now for USAID? Well, there's not really much left of USAID. Most of its contracts have been terminated. The staff have been whittled down to just a couple of hundred people. Now, the judge has blocked Musk from any further steps to shut down USAID, and he ordered Doge to reinstate access for current staff to emails and other electronic systems. But

But the impact of this ruling is quite minimal. It won't restore the work that the agency was doing before all of this. Humanitarian and development assistance programs, for example, are still cut. Okay. Now, what kind of reaction have you heard from this? Well, people who are critical of Elon Musk and Doge are saying that this is a big deal because there are concerns about what Musk and his team are doing across the federal government and what their authority is. And

And they say that the administration has been sending mixed messages. For example, President Trump has publicly praised Musk as he and his team gut federal agencies. Trump has said Musk is doing an unbelievable job to eliminate waste and improve efficiency.

But in these lawsuits, we're hearing something else. Government lawyers are saying that Musk is not in charge, that he's only there in an advisory role. Now, NPR reached out to the White House to get more clarity on this, but we have not heard back from them. And Norm Eisen, who leads the group representing the plaintiffs in this lawsuit, called the ruling an important victory against Elon Musk and his attack not only on USAID, but the U.S. government and the Constitution, he said.

And of course, as you mentioned earlier, President Trump weighed in yesterday and said, quote, I guarantee you we will be appealing. So there's going to be more news to follow on this case. Yeah, more than likely. That's NPR's Fatma Tannis. Thanks a lot. Thank you.

Russia and Ukraine launched strikes targeting each other's infrastructure last night. This comes hours after President Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, announced a limited ceasefire in Ukraine where Putin agreed to stop targeting Ukraine's energy facilities for 30 days.

That's far short of the end to fighting on land, air and sea that the U.S. and Ukraine agreed to last week. With us to explain where all of this stands is NPR's Eleanor Beardsley, joins us from Kyiv. So, Eleanor, a deal between Presidents Trump and Putin. What does this mean for the war in Ukraine? Will that change anything? Well, so far, nothing has changed because this is what the skies of Kyiv sounded like last night. I held my phone out our window.

So you can hear the air defense shooting down drones. You know, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he's been seeking a ceasefire to end attacks on people and civilian infrastructure, not just energy infrastructure. And he said on social media that these nighttime attacks by Russia are destroying the normal life of Ukrainians. He said the fact that these attacks continued right after Trump and Putin's call showed that maximum pressure must be put on Russia for the sake of peace. What has Zelensky said about the

possible ceasefire deal and Trump's conversation with Vladimir Putin? Well, he does not trust Putin. And there seems to be a constant fear in Ukraine now of being thrown under the bus by the Trump administration, you know, being forced to make concessions to to

to capitulate. Zelensky had a long online press conference with journalists last night, and clearly the length of the two-and-a-half-hour call between Presidents Trump and Putin was unnerving for him. And he was underwhelmed by the very limited agreement that came out of it, but he tried to show optimism because he has no choice, really. Let's listen. If such a first step is taken,

You know, he's saying, if this is the first step and there are no other steps so far, then let's hear the details of how to proceed and we will. And he just said he really hopes that President Trump will be able to put as much pressure on Putin as possible. But how far apart do you think Ukraine and Russia are on the terms of a possible deal?

Well, very far apart, actually. Analysts say there will have to be major concessions on both sides. And so far, the Russian demands are maximalist. For example, Putin wants land that his army doesn't even fully control in provinces that he's already annexed and is calling Russian. That's a red line for Ukraine. And Putin has said he will only accept a deal if Ukraine stops getting military assistance from his allies. Ukraine and the EU have rejected that. So you mentioned the EU. That's the other party in this whole thing, the rest of Europe. What are they saying?

Well, yesterday, French President Emmanuel Macron met with the Chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz, and they said they will absolutely keep the military aid flowing to Ukraine. And Macron said any ceasefire must be verifiable and Ukrainians must be at the table. You know, Macron has said many times that Europe cannot let Russia win this war. Here he is speaking yesterday. We will continue to support Ukraine in the face of the aggression war.

He said, we will continue supporting Ukraine in this war of aggression because we know from our experience what it means to be occupied. And of course, he's talking about the Nazi occupation of France in World War II. Yeah. You know, U.S. officials have been trying to reassure EU allies that they will be involved in any peace agreement. But the thing is, Eleanor, I mean, they haven't been. So, I mean, how do people feel about that? Well,

Well, this is deeply shaking the continent. There's a view that Putin is stalling so he can continue the war and that he's playing with Trump, who Europeans believe is naive, has no experience with Putin and wants a peace deal so badly he'll do anything. The former French ambassador to the U.S. won on French TV last night, Gérard Arrault, and he sort of summed up the sentiment. You shouldn't get Trump angry.

He said Putin is just signing on to the peace deal not to annoy Trump, but he's testing the waters to see how far he can go. He says it's Putin's dream for Russia to be treated as a superpower, dealing one-on-one with the American president over the heads of the Europeans. That's NPR's Eleanor Beardsley in Kiev. Thanks a lot. Thank you, A.

Israeli airstrikes are continuing today in Gaza after Israel broke the ceasefire yesterday. It was one of the deadliest days of the entire Gaza war with more than 400 killed. Those included five Hamas officials and women and children killed in their homes overnight.

Israel says it wants Hamas to agree to a new ceasefire deal and release more hostages. But Hamas hasn't changed its position. And many in the Israeli public are opposed to the return to war. So why is Israel doing it? NPR's Daniel Estrin is on the line from Tel Aviv with new details this morning about the attack. Daniel, so this was a surprise attack. So explain how it all came about.

Well, a senior Hamas official told us that mediators were actually holding ceasefire talks with Hamas in the wee hours of the morning Tuesday when these surprise Israeli strikes began. And an Israeli official tells us deception was the point. It began around 2.10 in the morning. Israel launched its first strikes, took about 10 minutes.

This happened after weeks of preparations. These plans were kept inside a closed circle of the Israeli military. And it came as a surprise to many Israelis and the public too. Many recently freed hostages spoke out yesterday about this return to war. We counted more than half of the living Israeli hostages recently freed by Hamas in

said the move endangered the lives of other hostages still in Gaza. What is Israel's rationale for doing this, for deceiving Hamas and launching this surprise attack?

Well, the old ceasefire deal was struck under the Biden administration, and Israel sees itself as having leeway to try to extract new ceasefire terms under President Trump. That's exactly what Trump's Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, tried to do. He presented a proposal last week for new ceasefire terms for Hamas to release more hostages before the talks to end the war began. And

Israel said it's returning to war now to pressure Hamas to agree to those terms. And how is Hamas responding to that pressure? Well, a Hamas official tells us that the group's main demands still remain. And those main demands are to go back to the original terms of the deal brokered under Biden and to begin discussing the permanent end of the war.

You have to understand, A, that in recent months, aid supplies were surging back to Gaza under the ceasefire, and Hamas was beginning to recover. And Israel saw that Hamas was benefiting from the lack of war and from talks continuing in recent weeks without giving up more hostages. And so here we are. Yeah. But how does this move, Daniel, maybe benefit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu politically inside Israel?

It does benefit him politically because he has this deadline. He has to pass a national budget in two weeks or his government could collapse. And so returning to war allows him to convince his far-right ally, Itamar Ben-Gvir, to rejoin the coalition now. It strengthens his coalition. He can support a new budget. It allows Netanyahu to distract from a move he tried to fire his domestic security chief, which is sparking street protests.

We could see this round of strikes in Gaza lasting another couple weeks until Netanyahu can pass a budget and until he has more flexibility to maybe resume a ceasefire then. That's NPR's Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv. Daniel, we appreciate all the reporting on this. Thanks. You're welcome, A.

Chief Justice John Roberts says impeachment is not the answer to legal disagreement and a rare rebuke of the president. He's pushing back on President Trump's call to impeach a federal judge after Judge James Boasberg ordered a temporary halt to the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members. In a social media post, Trump called the judge a, quote, radical left lunatic and demanded his removal.

And that's a first for Wednesday, March 19th. I'm E. Martinez. And I'm Leila Faldel. There's an easy way to stay connected to news and podcasts from the NPR network, the NPR app. Hear community coverage from your local station, stories from around the world, and podcast suggestions based on what you like.

Download the NPR app in your app store. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Jane Greenhalgh, Rylan Barton, Russell Lewis, Alice Wolfley, and Mohamed El-Bardisi. It was produced by Ziad Butch, Destiny Adams, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Misha Hynas, and our technical director is Carly Strange. Join us again tomorrow.

Want to hear this podcast without sponsor breaks? Amazon Prime members can listen to Up First sponsor-free through Amazon Music. Or you can also support NPR's vital journalism and get Up First Plus at plus.npr.org. That's plus.npr.org.

NPR informs and connects communities around the country, providing reliable information in times of crisis. Federal funding helps us fulfill our mission to create a more informed public and ensures that public radio remains available to everyone. Learn more about safeguarding the future of public media. Visit protectmypublicmedia.org.

A lot happens in Washington every day, from the White House to Capitol Hill and everywhere in between. That's where we come in. On the NPR Politics Podcast, we keep you up to date on what happens inside Washington and what it means for you and your community. The NPR Politics Podcast. Listen wherever you listen.