President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that the United States will withdraw from the top U.N. human rights body and will not resume funding for the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees.

The U.S. left the Geneva-based Human Rights Council last year, and it stopped funding the agency assisting Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, after Israel accused it of harboring Hamas militants who participated in the surprise Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in southern Israel, which UNRWA denies.

Trump’s announcement came on the day he met with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose country has long accused both the rights body and UNRWA of bias against Israel and antisemitism.

Trump’s executive orders also call for a review of American involvement in the Paris-based U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, known as UNESCO, and a review of U.S. funding for the United Nations in light of “the wild disparities in levels of funding among different countries.”

The United States, with the world’s largest economy, pays 22% of the U.N.’s regular operating budget, with China the second-largest contributor.

“I’ve always felt that the U.N. has tremendous potential,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “It’s not living up to that potential right now. … They’ve got to get their act together.”

He said the U.N. needs “to be fair to countries that deserve fairness,” adding that there are some countries, which he didn’t name, that are “outliers, that are very bad and they’re being almost preferred.”

Before Trump’s announcement, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric reiterated the Human Rights Council’s importance and UNRWA’s work in delivering “critical services to Palestinians.”

Trump also pulled the U.S. out of the Human Rights Council in June 2018. His ambassador to the U.N. at the time, Nikki Haley, accused the council of “chronic bias against Israel” and pointed to what she said were human rights abusers among its members.

President Joe Biden renewed support for the Human Rights Council, and the U.S. won a seat on the 47-nation body in October 2021. But the Biden administration announced in late September that the United States would not seek a second consecutive term.

Trump’s order on Tuesday has little concrete effect because the United States is already not a council member, said council spokesperson Pascal Sim. But like all other U.N. member countries, the U.S. automatically has informal observer status and will still have a seat in the council’s ornate round chamber at the U.N. complex in Geneva.

UNRWA was established by the U.N. General Assembly in 1949 to provide assistance for Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes before and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that followed Israel’s establishment, as well as for their descendants. It provides aid, education, health care and other services to some 2.5 million Palestinians in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as 3 million more in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.

Before the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, UNRWA ran schools for Gaza’s 650,000 children as well as health facilities, and helped deliver humanitarian aid. It has continued to provide health care and been key to the delivery of food and other aid to Palestinians during the war.

The first Trump administration suspended funding to UNRWA in 2018, but Biden restored it. The U.S. had been the biggest donor to the agency, providing it with $343 million in 2022 and $422 million in 2023.

For years, Israel has accused UNRWA of anti-Israeli bias in its education materials, which the agency denies.

Israel alleged that 19 of UNRWA’s 13,000 staff in Gaza participated in the Hamas attacks. They were terminated pending a U.N. investigation, which found nine may have been involved.

In response, 18 governments froze funding to the agency, but all have since restored support except the United States. Legislation ratifying the U.S. decision halted any American funding to UNRWA until March 2025, and Trump’s action Tuesday means it will not be restored.

The South African government has given Taiwan March deadline to relocate the island’s de facto embassy outside of the capital city Pretoria.

The Taiwanese Foreign Ministry said this, blaming Chinese pressure for the move.

South Africa severed official diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1997 and only maintains formal and very close relations with China, which views the democratically governed island as Chinese territory with no right to the trappings of a state.

In a statement, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said South Africa’s government had sent a letter in January demanding the de facto Taiwanese embassy leave Pretoria before the end of March and “even be renamed as a trade office”.

China’s foreign ministry said South Africa was a “good friend and partner” of China, and the country was doing exactly what it should when it comes to upholding the “one China principle” which states Taiwan is part of China.

“Taiwan independence does not enjoy popular support, and will fail,” the ministry said in a statement to Reuters.

South Africa made a request last year for what is called the Taipei Liaison Office to leave Pretoria.

A spokesperson for the South Africa’s foreign ministry told Reuters “our department is coordinating with the Taipei liaison office regarding administrative matters related to accurately representing its diplomatic classification in South Africa.

China is South Africa’s largest trading partner globally and one with which it is looking to expand cooperation in areas such as renewable energy.

Taiwan’s government rejects China’s sovereignty claims and says it has a right to forge ties with other countries.

Taiwan only has formal diplomatic ties with 12 countries, and in Africa it only has a single ally left, Eswatini, which is almost surrounded by South Africa.

USAID headquarters in Washington will be closed on Monday, with employees normally assigned to the office now to work remotely.

In an internal email obtained by ABC News. the message stated that employees normally assigned to the office will work remotely, except for those with essential on-site duties.

“Further guidance will be forthcoming,” the email said.

The closure follows comments from Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), who said he was “in the process” of “shutting down” USAID.

Musk claimed President Trump supported his efforts.

Tensions are rising at the agency, with DOGE staff reportedly taking over offices and senior officials locked out of internal systems.

Employees are being placed on administrative leave, and USAID’s chief of staff resigned. Musk’s agency is asserting control over USAID, which manages foreign aid and international development programs.

On Friday night, a group identifying as State Department employees and DOGE representatives demanded access to USAID offices, even threatening to involve U.S. Marshals when initially denied. Security later allowed their entry.

Musk has been vocal about his stance on USAID, calling it “a criminal organization” on social media. This move has unsettled USAID staff, with one official telling ABC News,

“The warp-speed of this mafia-like takeover has shaken USAID staff to the core.”

Posters and flags were removed from the Ronald Reagan Building, and employees placed on leave had their ID badges and work computers seized.

DOGE spokeswoman Katie Miller denied any unauthorized access to classified material but confirmed the group gained control of several critical USAID systems, including financial management software Phoenix, which led to disruptions in payments for contractors.