A judge has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s plan to place 2,200 employees of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) on paid leave, hours before it was due to happen.

Judge Carl Nichols said he would issue a “very limited” temporary restraining order in response to a lawsuit filed by unions, challenging the plan to place thousands of staff on leave from midnight on Friday.

USAID, which is the US government’s main overseas development arm, employs about 10,000 people, two-thirds of whom work overseas. It’s unclear where the remaining staff stand regarding their jobs.

Under Trump’s plan, some 611 employees would have been kept working at the agency. The ruling came as officials removed and covered USAID signs at the organisation’s headquarters in Washington DC.

Trump has argued that USAID is not a valuable use of taxpayer money. It is one of many federal agencies his administration is targeting as it works to slash federal spending in the US.

The Republican campaigned on overhauling the government and formed an advisory body named the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) – led by tech billionaire Elon Musk – to slash the budget.

Friday’s ruling by Judge Nichols came in response to an emergency petition by the American Foreign Service Association and American Federation of Government Employees – two unions representing employees of the agency.

• ‘We’re pawns in a game’: US aid workers left in limbo
• What is USAID and why is Trump poised to ‘close it down’?
• How a US freeze upended global aid in a matter of days
• USAID could slash staff to hundreds after placing most on leave

Judge Nichols, who was nominated by Trump during his first term, said the written order would be issued later and go into more detail.

The organisations who sued told the BBC they were waiting for the text of the court order to find out how all employees at USAID would be affected.

But for now, it appeared that the more than 2,000 direct hires at the agency who are part of the unions would be safe, according to Lauren Bateman an attorney at Public Citizen, an advocacy group that filed the lawsuit.

About 500 USAID staff have already been placed on leave by the Trump administration.

During the hearing, the judge did not seem likely to grant other requests as part of the lawsuit, including to restore grants and contracts or reopen USAID buildings.

The legal action argued that the president was violating the US Constitution and federal law by attempting to dismantle the agency.

“Not a single one of defendants’ actions to dismantle USAID were taken pursuant to congressional authorization,” it said.

“And pursuant to federal statute, Congress is the only entity that may lawfully dismantle the agency.”

Representing the Trump administration, justice department official Brett Shumate told the judge that the president “has decided there is corruption and fraud at USAID”.

Hours after Trump took office on 20 January, he signed an executive order halting all foreign assistance until such funds were vetted and aligned with his “America First” policy.

That led to a stop work order at USAID, which runs health and emergency programmes in around 120 countries, including in the world’s poorest regions.

“USAID IS DRIVING THE RADICAL LEFT CRAZY,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.

“THE CORRUPTION IS AT LEVELS RARELY SEEN BEFORE. CLOSE IT DOWN!”

But Samantha Power, who was USAID chief under former President Joe Biden, wrote in a scathing New York Times opinion piece: “We are witnessing one of the worst and most costly foreign policy blunders in US history.”

The US is by far the biggest single provider of humanitarian aid around the world. USAID’s budget amounts to around $40bn – about 0.6% of total US annual government spending of $6.75tn.

The head of the United Nations’ programme for tackling HIV/AIDS told the BBC the cuts would have dire impacts across the globe.

“AIDS related deaths in the next 5 years will increase by 6.3 million” if funding is not restored, UNAIDS executive director Winnie Byanyima said.

Hamas has released the names of the next hostages to be freed on Saturday in the Gaza Strip in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

They are male civilians Eli Sharabi, Ohad Ben Ami and Or Levy.

So far, 18 hostages have been freed since the ceasefire began on 19 January with Israel in return releasing 383 prisoners. Hamas says another 183 are to be returned on Saturday.

Some 33 hostages and 1,900 prisoners are due to be freed by the end of the first stage of the ceasefire in three weeks’ time. Israel says eight of the 33 are dead.

Hamas seized 251 hostages and killed about 1,200 people when it attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, triggering the war.

At least 47,500 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry. About two-thirds of Gaza’s buildings have been damaged or destroyed by Israel’s attacks, the UN says.

Eli Sharabi, 52, was taken from Kibbutz Beeri with his brother, Yossi, whose death has since been confirmed. Eli’s British-born wife, Lianne, and two daughters, Noiya and Yahel, were murdered in the attack.

Mr Sharabi’s brother-in-law, Stephen Brisley, from Wales, said his safe return “has always been that one crumb of comfort”.

“Eli coming home alive would be perhaps the greatest memorial to Lianne and the girls and we’re so close to achieving that now,” he told the BBC.

Ohad Ben Ami, 56, was also taken from Kibbutz Beeri, along with his wife, Raz. She was later released by Hamas.

Mr Ben Ami, an accountant, is “known for his good judgment and sense of humour”, according to the Hostages Families Forum.

Or Levy, 34, a computer programmer from Rishon LeZion, a city south of Tel Aviv, fled the Nova festival with his wife Eynav, when gunmen attacked the event.

Mr Levy was taken hostage and Eynav’s body was found in a bomb shelter where the couple had been hiding.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed authorities had received the list of abductees scheduled for release on Saturday, and their families had been informed.

• Who are Israeli hostages released and rescued from Gaza
• Jeremy Bowen: Trump’s Gaza plan won’t happen, but it will have consequences
• What we know about the Gaza ceasefire deal

Earlier on Friday, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters had welcomed “news about the expected release” of the three hostages.

“We will not give up or stop at any stage until all hostages return home under the current agreement – down to the very last one – the living for rehabilitation and the deceased for proper burial,” the statement said.

Hours before they released the hostage names, Hamas accused Israel of failing to abide by its commitment to boost the amount of humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza as part of the ceasefire deal.

The head of Hamas’s media office in Gaza, Salama Marouf, told a news conference in Gaza City: “The humanitarian situation remains catastrophic due to Israeli obstruction”.

He said only 8,500 out of an expected 12,000 aid lorries had entered Gaza since the ceasefire came into effect, and medical equipment and shelter supplies had been deliberately delayed, according to media reports.

The allegation contradicts UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher, who on Thursday said 10,000 lorries with food, medicine and tents had crossed into Gaza since the start of the ceasefire in what he called “a massive surge”.

Meanwhile, Yarden Bibas, 34, an Israeli hostage who was freed on Saturday, made a direct plea to Netanyahu to bring back his wife and children, who are still in captivity.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu, I’m now addressing you with my own words… bring my family back, bring my friends back, bring everyone home,” Mr Bibas said in his first public statement since his release.

Hamas claimed in November 2023 that Mr Bibas’s wife, Shiri, and two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, had been killed in an Israeli air strike, without providing evidence. Israel has not confirmed the report.

In a separate development in central Gaza on Friday, hundreds of people – including armed Hamas fighters – attended a funeral held for senior Hamas military commander Marwan Issa.

Issa is seen as one of the masterminds of Hamas’s 7 October attack. The Israeli military had said he was killed in an air strike last March, but his death was only confirmed by Hamas last week.

Gaza has been rocked by US President Donald Trump’s post-war plan for the territory announced earlier this week. Trump called for the US to “take over” the Gaza Strip, resettle its Palestinian population and turn the territory into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.

His idea was strongly condemned by Arab countries and the UN.

US President Donald Trump has said he is revoking Joe Biden’s security clearance and access to daily intelligence briefings, after his predecessor did the same to him four years ago.

“There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform.

“JOE, YOU’RE FIRED,” the Republican added in a reference to his catchphrase on the reality TV show, The Apprentice.

Trump has already revoked the security clearance of more than four dozen former intelligence officials whom he accused of meddling in the 2020 election in Biden’s favour.

Trump posted on Friday evening that Biden “set this precedent in 2021, when he instructed the Intelligence Community (IC) to stop the 45th President of the United States (ME!) from accessing details on National Security, a courtesy provided to former Presidents”.

He said Biden “could not be trusted with sensitive information”, citing a justice department inquiry into the Democrat’s storage of classified files, which concluded that while there was no need to press criminal charges, Biden had a poor memory.

The investigation said Biden was unable to recall significant life events such as the year his son, Beau, died and when he served as vice-president to Barack Obama. Biden rejected that characterisation at the time.

The former president, who has taken some time away from the limelight since leaving his post last month, did not immediately respond to Trump’s move on Friday.

The BBC contacted Biden’s talent agency, which recently signed him, but no response was immediately forthcoming.

In 2021, Biden stopped Trump from receiving classified intelligence briefings, the first time an ex-president had ever been denied such information, which is traditionally given as a courtesy.

He justified the move by saying Trump could not be trusted because of his “erratic behaviour”, even before the 2021 US Capitol riot, which Democrats accused Trump of inciting in the last days of his first term.

“What value is giving him an intelligence briefing?” Biden said at the time. “What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?”

In 2022, federal agents discovered classified files in Trump’s Florida home and he was charged with wilfully retaining defence information. He pleaded not guilty, and the case was ultimately dropped once he was re-elected.

Since returning to office, Trump has taken steps to revoke the security clearances and protections of other top officials linked to the Biden administration.

Among those whose security clearance and detail has been retracted is former top US military commander Mark Milley, a vocal critic of Trump.

The new Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth, has also ordered Milley’s “conduct” to be investigated, and his military grade to be reviewed.

Trump has also revoked the security detail of former chief medical adviser to the president, Anthony Fauci, who led the US response to Covid-19.

Trump said at the time the decision was “very standard” and that it was not possible for everyone to have security protection for the rest of their life because they worked for the government.

He ended security protection for his own former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Secret Service protection for his former National Security Adviser, John Bolton, last month.

The president has also ordered that the security clearance of dozens of former intelligence officials, including two ex-CIA directors, be revoked.

They signed a letter in 2020 suggesting that reports about a laptop owned by Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, were a Russian hoax.

But the computer, whose trove of data contained evidence of drug abuse, prostitution and foreign business deals, was real.

The victims of Sweden’s worst mass shooting were seven women and three men aged between 28 and 68, police said on Friday after completing the identification process.

They were killed at an adult education centre in the city of Orebro on Tuesday, about 125 miles (200km) from Stockholm, in an attack that has sent shockwaves through Sweden.

All of the victims lived in Orebro, but so far authorities have declined to share their identities or any other details about them.

Police also confirmed on Friday that the suspected gunman was a 35-year-old man from the area. He has been named widely in Swedish media as Rickard Andersson.

Anna Bergkvist, the head of the police investigation, told the BBC on Thursday that suspect had killed himself inside the school.

Police have confirmed that the suspect owned four rifles legally, three of which were found inside the school after the attack alongside 10 empty magazines.

Sweden’s coalition government on Friday announced plans to strengthen the country’s laws, making it harder to purchase guns and restricting certain types of rifle.

In the absence of official confirmation of the victims’ identities, information has come out instead through their families and communities.

Among them was Salim Isker, a 29-year-old man who fled the conflict in Syria in 2015 with his mother and sister after his father was killed there.

Isker was studying at the Risbergska centre, where the attack happened – a school popular with immigrants learning Swedish and other subjects.

• Mass shooting leaves Orebro’s immigrant community on edge
• School shooting: What do we know?

Isker’s fiancee Kareen Elia, 24, attended a memorial service in Orebro on Thursday night along with his mother and other members of his family.

Jacob Kasselia, the priest at the Syrian Orthodox church attended by Isker and his family, told the BBC he was a “simply a good man”.

“He did not look for trouble. He showed only goodwill. He was a member of our community,” Kasselia said.

Bassam Al Sheleh, a 48-year-old baker and cook and father of two, has also been named by Swedish media as one of the victims of the attack.

He was reportedly studying at the Risbergska centre to improve his English.

A national of Bosnia and Herzegovina was killed and another was injured, the Bosnian foreign ministry said, citing information shared by Orebro residents.

In a post on social media on Friday, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson acknowledged that the event had caused fear among immigrant communities, and urged people to “unite and stand behind all that we hold dear together”.

“My thoughts are with the relatives who have now received the call that is the worst one can get. To you, I want to say: you are not alone. We stand beside you,” he wrote.

The gunman’s motive remains unknown. Video filmed inside the building during the attack and published by Swedish media appeared to record someone using anti-immigrant sentiments, but the footage has not been confirmed as accurate by the authorities.

Members of Orebro’s Middle Eastern immigrant communities have told the BBC they are feeling vulnerable and have been taking additional precautions in the days since the attack.

Sweden’s centre-right coalition, which relies on the support of the far-right Sweden Democrats party, said on Friday it would seek to increase vetting around gun purchases and ban certain types of weapon.

“There are certain types of weapons that are so dangerous that they should only be possessed for civilian purposes as an exception,” the government said in a statement.

Prime Minister Kristersson, on a visit to Latvia, told reporters the government had to “ensure that only the right people have guns in Sweden”.

The Sweden Democrats said that it agreed with proposals to amend the law, including greater restrictions on access to semi-automatic weapons.

“The horrific act of violence in Orebro raises several key questions about gun legislation,” the party said in a statement.

The AR-15, a particular style of semi-automatic rifle that is both powerful and can carry large magazines, was singled out by the government as an example of weapons that could be restricted.

Under current Swedish gun laws, anyone over 18 who does not have a criminal record can apply for a permit for a shotgun, handgun or semi-automatic rifle.

They must justify to the police why they need a gun. People over 20 can apply for a special dispensation to own a fully automatic weapon.

Around 580,000 Swedes have a weapons licence out of a population of around 10.5 million, according to figures from Swedish broadcaster SVT.

A 2017 Swiss study found there were about 2.3 million guns held by civilians in Sweden. That is around 23 guns per 100 people, compared with 29 in Norway and 120 per 100 in the US.

To obtain a hunting licence in Sweden, a theory and practical test is required. About 280,000 Swedes have one.

Sweden has a relatively high level of gun ownership and gun crime, by European standards, though most weapons are legally owned and used for hunting.

Gun crime is mostly associated with gangs, who have also taken to using bombs to target one another.

Non-gang-related gun crime is less common, and Tuesday’s attack the nation’s first school shooting and its worst mass shooting. A total of four people were killed in two separate school stabbings in 2015 and 2022.

Ukraine’s president says North Korean forces have returned to the front line in Russia’s western Kursk region, after reports they were withdrawn last month due to heavy casualties.

In a video address on Friday, Volodymyr Zelensky said the Russian army had “brought back in North Korean soldiers” who were carrying out “new assaults” in the region partially occupied by Ukraine.

He added “hundreds of Russian and North Korean military” personnel had been “destroyed”.

In January, Western officials told the BBC they believed at least 1,000 of the 11,000 troops sent from North Korea had been killed in the past three months. North Korea and Russia have not commented.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The fighting has led to heavy losses on both sides.

• North Koreans suffer 1,000 losses – Western officials tell BBC

• What are North Korean troops doing in Ukraine war?

Last week, Ukrainian special forces fighting in Kursk told the BBC they had not seen any North Korean troops there for the past 21 days.

A spokesman said it was probable they had been pulled out after suffering heavy combat losses.

The spokesman added that he was only referring to areas where his forces were fighting, without giving any details about how long that front line was.

Recent reports attributed to South Korean intelligence have suggested the North Koreans soldiers are unprepared for modern warfare, and are especially vulnerable to Ukrainian drones.

Military experts say the reports of North Korean casualties, if they continue at this pace, are unsustainable.

The soldiers were deployed after Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un deepened bilateral ties in recent months, including signing a security and defence treaty.

Pyongyang’s assistance to Moscow now also extends to large amounts of ammunition and weapons.

The troops were also seen to have been sent to boost Russia’s fighting forces who have seen significant losses.

Russia’s military has not publicly revealed its battlefield casualties since September 2022, when it said 5,937 soldiers had been killed.

But Ukraine’s president said this week up to 350,000 Russian soldiers had been killed, and other reports suggest that number could be significantly higher.

Zelensky put Ukraine’s military casualties at 45,100 – but a number of military experts in both Ukraine and the West believe the losses are much higher.

Ukrainian troops launched a lightning offensive in Kursk six months ago, seizing more than 1,000 sq km (386 sq miles) of Russian territory.

Since then, Russian forces have managed to retake a sizeable chunk of the region.

However, Zelensky on Friday told Reuters news agency that Ukraine had launched a new offensive in Kursk on Thursday, advancing 2.5km (1.5 miles).

Russia’s military said the Ukrainian attacks had been repelled.

The claims by the warring sides have not been independently verified.

In other key developments on Friday:

• Russia’s military said its forces captured a key town of Toretsk in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region – but a Ukrainian military spokesman said fighting was continuing in the industrial hub
• US President Donald Trump said he would “probably be meeting President Zelensky next week, and I will probably be talking to President Putin. I’d like to see that war end”.

Votes are being counted in India’s capital Delhi, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is hoping to stage a comeback after 27 years.

Most exit polls, following the vote on Wednesday, predicted an absolute majority for the BJP, giving them more than 35 seats in the 70-member legislative assembly.

More than 60% of eligible voters cast their ballot in the poll, as per data released by the Election Commission of India.

Winning Delhi is a prestige battle for both frontrunners – the BJP and incumbent Aam Aadmi Party – given its symbolic importance as the capital.

The city, a federally-administered territory, has been governed by the AAP since 2013, with voters backing its strong record of welfarism. But the party has recently been embroiled in corruption allegations – which they have denied.

For the BJP, securing Delhi represents more than just electoral success – it would mark a crucial foothold in the nation’s capital.

The party, which has had recent election success in other states, such as Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, has thrown resources at the Delhi campaign, with Modi as well as Home Minister Amit Shah attending events.

Meanwhile, most of the exit polls, which are conducted by asking questions to a sample set of voters right after they leave the polling booth, predict fewer than 35 seats for the AAP.

Congress, the main opposition party at the national level, is also in the race, but polls indicate a bleak outlook for it.

The party governed Delhi from 1998 to 2013, but was ousted over allegations of corruption that saw voters turn to AAP instead. It has failed to make a mark since.

However, analysts warn that the exit polls, released by various news agencies, have often been wrong in the past and are not impartial.

Delhi has a unique governance structure.

Key decisions related to public order, police and land are taken by the lieutenant governor (LG) who is appointed by the federal government. The state legislature handles matters including education, health and public services.

This division has often caused friction between the federal government and state legislature when they are run by rival parties, analysts say.

The power structure is also a reason why the election campaigning in Delhi is more focused on welfare than on political or identity issues, which play a larger role in elections elsewhere in the country.

The AAP and BJP campaigns both promised improvements to public schools and free healthcare services as well as cash handouts to women.

Meanwhile, the BJP also hoped for a boost from last week’s federal budget, which slashed income tax for the salaried middle class, a key voting bloc in the capital.

Experts say that while exit poll results are not the final word, they show that Modi remains popular among Indian voters, despite his party losing its outright majority in last year’s general election.

Much of the BJP campaign targeted the AAP’s chief Arvind Kejriwal, an anti-graft activist, who was jailed in a corruption case relating to a now-scrapped alcohol sales policy last year.

Kejriwal, who denies all allegations and was released on bail in September, has accused Modi’s party of carrying out a “political vendetta” against him and AAP, charges that the BJP denies.

The Supreme Court’s bail conditions ban him from entering the chief minister’s office or signing files. Kejriwal resigned from the role days after his release from prison and there are questions over whether he could resume the role.

One topic, however, remained firmly off the agenda during the bitter weeks-long campaign – Delhi’s perennial air pollution crisis.

Despite being a pressing issue year after year, none of the party leaders or their manifestos addressed the hazardous air that blankets the city of more than 30 million for much of the year.

On a calm summer day on Santorini in July 1956, the ground turned against its people.

“I remember our dog and bird acting strangely. Then, the earthquake struck,” 83-year-old Eirini Mindrinou recalls, her voice steady but distant, as if trying to grasp a memory that never truly faded. “The house split open before closing again. Through the crack in the roof, I could see the sky.”

The 7.8-magnitude earthquake, which struck between Santorini and the nearby island of Amorgos, destroyed much of the island, and a powerful aftershock 12 minutes later finished what little remained. Fifty-three people died. The island, then just a quiet fishing village, was scarred and its people fled.

It is much different today, rebuilt into one of Greece’s most coveted tourists destinations – but this week, another mass exodus unfolded. Subtle tremors that had begun in June 2024 turned into full-fledged earthquakes, some exceeding 4.0 on the Richter scale, shaking homes and unsettling the island’s residents. Families rushing to leave by air and sea, desperately seeking respite as the ground shook once again.

But not everyone is fleeing. Those that remain display the mix of courage, necessity, and a deep connection to the land that has come to define the locals of this island. They endure sleepless nights, haunted by memories of the past and the terrifying unknown of what’s yet to come.

“The noise from the earthquake, the sounds of [other people’s] homes breaking apart – it’s unbearable. Even in my house, it’s become overwhelming,” says Margarita Karamolegkou, a local businesswoman. “I’ve felt tired, day after day, with no end in sight… But I haven’t felt fear. I can’t leave my home, and I can’t leave the people who’ve stayed behind.”

This resilience is nothing new. People have have withstood both social change -about 3.4 million visited the island last year, according to Mayor Nikos Zorzos – and seismic shifts. Now, as always, they have come together in solidarity.

“We’re doing our best to support the vulnerable,” says Matthaios Fytros, a local volunteer and merchant. “People with disabilities, the elderly – many struggle to get around, and their homes are hard to reach. If a major earthquake hits, I know exactly where they live, and I’ll get to them as fast as I can, alongside the firefighters.”

Matthaios and others patrol the island, ensuring abandoned properties aren’t looted and helping anyone in need. “I’m not afraid,” he says with quiet conviction. “We’re proud of our island. I just hope everything works out and that this ordeal ends soon. We’ll be happy to have our visitors back with us.”

The response of the state has been swift, with measures taken to address the crisis. Beneath the gratitude for the government’s intervention, however, lingers a quiet bitterness. Many islanders recall the years when their cries for better infrastructure and support went unheard.

“For years, we’ve been asking for a better port, something to help us manage the growing number of tourists,” Margarita says, her voice tinged with frustration. “We need help preserving the island’s identity – its unique environment, the seismic and volcanic forces that shape it. We’re grateful for the tourists, but we also need to protect what makes Santorini special.”

Tourism has become the lifeblood of Santorini’s economy. The island contributes around 2.5% to Greece’s GDP, approximately 5.9 billion euros (£4.9 billion) each year.

As the tremors continue, the future of Santorini’s economy remains uncertain. Will its prosperity withstand the shaking ground? The people of Santorini worry that the island’s fragility may soon extend beyond the land itself.

“I regret how haphazard the island’s development has been with the rise in tourism,” says Eirini, who is temporarily in Athens, not out of fear, but for routine medical tests. “We’ve damaged the natural environment here. Now, with the earthquakes continuing, there’s a real risk we could lose the entire tourist season.”

Scientists may not know when the shaking will stop, but instead of succumbing to fear, some residents have chosen to understand the phenomenon, hoping that will bring them reassurance in the face of the unknown.

“I try to think of what’s happening with kindness,” Margarita says thoughtfully. “It feels like something is settling down there. Everything we admire about Santorini today – the beauty, the character – has been shaped by the volcano and its seismic forces.”

“We are the most beloved island,” says Matthaios, his voice full of pride. “And I believe we’re the most beautiful of all the islands in Greece. We will get out of this stronger.”