A US judge has temporarily halted President Donald Trump’s plan offering incentives to federal workers to voluntarily resign before a Thursday midnight deadline.

Federal Judge George O’Toole Jr said the plan would be paused until a hearing on Monday when he could determine the merits of a lawsuit filed by federal employee unions, reported CBS, the BBC’s US partner.

The offer is part of an ongoing effort by the Trump administration to slash the size of the federal government.

The White House says more than 40,000 employees have accepted the offer to resign in exchange for pay until 30 September. Some workers have voiced confusion about the terms of the deal.

The order came hours before Thursday’s 23:59 EST (04:59 GMT Friday) deadline for federal workers to accept the offer.

A lawyer for the justice department said federal employees would be notified that the deadline had been paused, CBS reported.

The White House appeared to see the temporary halt as a way to increase the number of resignations.

“We are grateful to the Judge for extending the deadline so more federal workers who refuse to show up to the office can take the Administration up on this very generous, once-in-a-lifetime offer,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

An Office of Personnel Management (OPM) statement said the agency would continue processing resignations until an extended deadline of 23:59 local time on Monday.

“The program is NOT being blocked or canceled,” it said. “The government will honor the deferred resignation offer.”

The Trump administration, which previously said it hoped for as many as 200,000 employees to accept its offer, told US media they expected a spike in participation just ahead of the deadline.

“It’s going to save the American people tens of millions of dollars,” Leavitt told reporters outside the White House’s West Wing before the judge paused the programme.

The American Federation of Government Employees, a union, filed the lawsuit against the OPM, arguing it had violated the law, that it could not fund the deal, and that it had given conflicting guidance about its terms.

The union said in an email to members that the offer was part of an “effort to dismantle the civil service and replace the skilled, professional workforce with unqualified political appointees and for-profit contractors”.

The union noted that Congress has not passed a budget for funding beyond mid-March, arguing that it was unclear whether agencies could pay workers until September.

On Thursday, the union said it was “pleased” by the judge’s actions.

Some federal employees have described their shock at the buy-out proposal, which was delivered in the form of a late-night email with the subject line “Fork in the Road”. Some thought the email was spam.

“The tone of the initial email was like ‘you may be cut anyway,’” Monet Hepp, a medical support specialist at the US Department of Veterans Affairs, previously told BBC. “People were blindsided by it.”

Democrats have questioned the legality of the resignation package and warned it would lead to a “brain drain” that would be “felt by every American”.

“Without the expertise and institutional knowledge that so many federal employees bring to their work, our government will be incapable of responding effectively to national emergencies, serving the American public, or even carrying out routine operations,” Democrats on the House Oversight Committee wrote in a letter to President Trump.

On Tuesday, the Central Intelligence Agency became the first national security department to extend the offer to its staff. Former US intelligence officials and several lawmakers have raised concerns that this offer could undermine US national security.

There are also reports of impending cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the weather-forecasting agency, and the Department of Health and Human Services.

More than 900 people have been killed in the past two weeks amid intense fighting between M23 rebels and government forces in Goma, a city in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

According to a statement released late Monday by the World Health Organization, approximately 2,880 injured individuals have been admitted to various health facilities in Goma since January 26.

Last week, the M23 armed group, backed by Rwandan troops, seized Goma’s airport as its fighters swept through the city, the regional capital of North Kivu, forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes.

The rebels have intensified attacks in eastern DRC, claiming control over Goma and establishing checkpoints, severely restricting humanitarian access.

With Goma under their control, the rebels pushed towards Bukavu, another major city in eastern DRC. Previously, the group had declared its intention to advance across the country toward the national capital, Kinshasa. However, in a recent statement, M23 rebels denied plans to capture Bukavu.

“It must be made clear that we have no intention of capturing Bukavu or other areas. However, we reiterate our commitment to protecting and defending the civilian population and our positions,” M23 spokesman Lawrence Kanyuka stated.

Meanwhile, Rwanda-backed forces in eastern DRC announced on Tuesday that they would pause their advance for humanitarian reasons.

The Alliance Fleuve Congo rebel coalition declared a unilateral ceasefire starting Tuesday, a decision made in response to growing humanitarian concerns.

The rebels’ statement, posted on X (formerly Twitter), read:

“The Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC/M23) informs the public that, in response to the humanitarian crisis caused by the regime in Kinshasa, it declares a ceasefire starting February 4, 2025, for humanitarian reasons.”

Despite the ceasefire declaration, there has been no immediate response from the DRC government in Kinshasa, and it remains unclear whether the Congolese military will honor the truce. Over the past three years, multiple ceasefires and truces have been declared, only to be systematically broken.

Before the ceasefire announcement, the International Committee of the Red Cross reported treating over 600 wounded individuals since the start of January, nearly half of whom were civilians, including women and children.

Meanwhile, the WHO has warned of a heightened risk of disease outbreaks, including mpox, cholera, and measles, as displaced populations struggle to access medical care.

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.