Trump's second term: Uproar over Musk's DOGE targets

The governing body for collegiate sports in the United States has implemented a new policy, with immediate effect, that bans transgender women from competing in female disciplines in sport.

"A student-athlete assigned male at birth may not compete on a women's team," the new policy from the National Collegiate Athletic Association states.

The change comes a day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that prevents transgender women from competing in female categories of sports.

The order provides guidance, regulations and legal interpretations, and enlists the Department of Education to investigate high schools suspected of not complying.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked US President Donald Trump's plan to force federal employees to resign by offering them financial incentives.

The ruling by US District Judge George O'Toole Jr. in Boston came just hours before Thursday's midnight deadline for federal workers to sign up to the so-called 'deferred resignation' program.

The postponement represents a temporary victory for labor unions who have urged workers to remain in their jobs while they sue over the plans, which are being orchestrated by Trump advisor Elon Musk in an unprecedented drive to downsize and restructure the US civil service.

O'Toole ordered a follow-up hearing for Monday, when he could push the deadline back even further.

Shortly after, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that over 40,000 federal workers had already agreed to resign in exchange for nearly eight months of continued pay and benefits.

That represents roughly 2% of the US government's 2.3 million civilian workforce. For context, around 6% of federal workers retire or resign in a typical year, according to the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service.

"We expect that number to increase," Leavitt said. "We encourage federal workers in this city to accept the very generous offer."

US President Donald Trump has blamed last week's deadly collision of a passenger jet and army helicopter on an "obsolete" computer system used by US air traffic controllers.

"A lot of mistakes happened," he said of the Jan 29 incident which killed 67 people in Washington, DC., but insisted that a positive outcome could emerge.

"I think what is going to happen is we're all going to sit down and do a great computerized system for our control towers," he said. "Brand new, not pieced together and obsolete."

Trump claimed the US spent billions of dollars trying to "renovate an old, broken system" instead of investing in a new one.

He also claimed that, had a newer system been in place, alarms would have sounded when the Black Hawk helicopter reached the same altitude as the plane. An FAA report after the crash said that the controller did indeed get an alert that the two aircraft were converging when they were still more than a mile (1.6 kilometers) apart. The helicopter responded that it did have the plane in sight.

"It's amazing that it happened," Trump said, having initially blamed the tragedy on diversity hiring programs.

Investigators are yet to examine the wreckage of the still-submerged Black Hawk to verify the data. The helicopter isn't expected to be recovered until later this week.

Alphabet's Google is getting rid of diversity goals it had set in recent years, as it joins a number of US businesses which have adopted more conservative measures since US President Donald Trump's administration’s push against diversity, equity and inclusion programs in government.

In a letter to its employees on Wednesday seen by various US media outlets, Alphabet's chief people officer Fiona Cicconi referred to 2020 "aspirational hiring goals" and a focus on expanding offices outside of California and New York.

"...But in the future, we will no longer have aspirational goals," the letter read.

The 2020 goals were set by CEO Sundar Pichai, who aimed for 30% more leaders from underrepresented groups by 2025.

Back then, some 96% of the company's leaders within the US were white or Asian, with 73% worldwide being men.

In a 2024 diversity report, Google said that women make up 34.1% of employees globally, up from 30.6% in 2014. The 10-year period also saw the number of Black employees grow from 2.4% to 5.7%, and the number of Latinos from 4.5% to 7.5%, while white workers fell from 64.5% to 45.3%.

The company's annual filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission show Google omitted a line pledging commitment "to making diversity, equity and inclusion part of everything we do and to growing a workforce that is representative of the users we serve."

Alphabet joins companies such as Facebook and Amazon, which have announced similar measures recently.

Trump has kicked off his second term in office with a fierce campaign against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity (DEI) initiatives across government institutions.

South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola on Thursday rejected claims by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, saying in a statement that "there is no arbitrary dispossession of land / private property" with South Africa's new land reform law.

"This law is similar to the Eminent domain laws," he added.

With eminent domain laws, Lamola is referring to a law used in the US, as well as in other countries, that allows the state or the federal government to take private property for public use.

"The federal government's power of eminent domain has long been used in the United States to acquire property for public use," the US Department of Justice states on its website. 

South Africa's own bill governing the compulsory acquisition, known as expropriation, of private property by the government for public purposes or in the public interest became law in January 2025.

The law stirred some controversy for allowing expropriation in a few limited cases without compensation.

This includes, for example, if the land is unused or poses a risk to the public.

Some conservative groups, such as AfriForum, claim without evidence that the law will be used to take land from white farmers.

Al Jazeera has reported several times that the group "persistently" lobbies US government officials.  

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday he would skip Group of 20 talks later this month in South Africa, accusing the host government of an "anti-American" agenda.

Rubio's announcement comes days after US President Donald Trump lashed out at South Africa over land reforms aimed at redressing inequalities perpetrated during the apartheid era.

Rubio said he would boycott the G20 talks of foreign ministers in Johannesburg on February 20-21.

"South Africa is doing very bad things. Expropriating private property. Using G20 to promote 'solidarity, equality, & sustainability,'" Rubio posted on X. "In other words: DEI and climate change."

Trump has relentlessly attacked DEI, which stands for diversity, equity and inclusion, since he returned to the White House for his second term.

Rubio's anouncement comes after Trump accused South Africa of "taking away land," something South Africa has strongly rejected in past days.

The Panama Canal Authority said in a statement that it had not made any changes to charges or rights to transit the Panama Canal.

The response came after the US State Department said that its government vessels could cross the waterway for free. 

"With total responsibility, the Panama Canal Authority, as it has indicated, is willing to establish dialogue with relevant US officials regarding the transit of wartime vessels from said country," the authority said.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is on his first international trip to Latin America, told reporters that Panama offered concessions after he met President Jose Raul Mulino over the weekend.

According to Rubio, he told Panama it was unfair for his country to defend the canal and also to be charged for its use. Around 40% of all US container traffic passes through the crossing.

The first US military flight carrying migrants from the United States to Guantanamo Bay landed in Cuba on Tuesday evening, according to authorities.

President Donald Trump wants to repurpose the US naval base as a center for detained migrants. Last week, he ordered the facility to be readied to hold up to 30,000 migrants.

For decades, Guantanamo Bay was mainly used to detain foreigners deemed to be linked to the September 11, 2001, attacks as the US carried out its war on terrorism.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was deployed to Guantanamo Bay when he was on active duty, described it as a "perfect place" to hold migrants.

The US State Department announced an exemption to President Trump's aid freeze to support a security mission in Haiti, where hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee because of spiraling gang violence.

The announcement came as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in the neighboring Dominican Republic.

Rubio greenlighted $40.7 million in foreign aid to help the Haitian National Police and the Multinational Security Support mission, according to a State Department spokesperson.

"The United States has not paused all assistance for the Multinational Security Support mission in Haiti," the spokesperson said.

The United Nations said Tuesday that the US had stopped $13.3 million in pending aid. The State Department said the amount was a fraction of their total contribution.

Just hours after taking office on January 20, Trump ordered a 90-day spending freeze on foreign assistance to assess if the contributions aligned with his "America First" foreign policy.

Demonstrators gathered in cities across the US on Wednesday to rally against the sudden closure of USAID and other early actions ordered by President Donald Trump.

The protests were a result of a movement organized online under the hashtags #buildtheresistance and #50501, which stands for 50 protests, 50 states, one day.

Billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) agents are reviewing the systems and technology at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

The agency, which manages the country's two largest health programs, spends over $1 trillion to provide health insurance for over 140 million people.

CMS spokeswoman Catherine Howden said in a statement that two agency officials are working with DOGE.

"We are taking a thoughtful approach to see where there may be opportunities for more effective and efficient use of resources in line with meeting the goals of President Trump," Howden said.