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Pete Marocco, the Trump administration official who played a major role in dismantling the US Agency for International Development (USAID), has left the state department, a US official said on Sunday.

Donald Trump’s administration has moved to fire nearly all USAID staff, as billionaire Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” has slashed funding and dismissed contractors across the federal bureaucracy in what it calls an attack on wasteful spending.

“Pete was brought to state with a big mission – to conduct an exhaustive review of every dollar spent on foreign assistance. He conducted that historic task and exposed egregious abuses of taxpayer dollars,” a senior administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

“We all expect big things are in store for Pete on his next mission,” the official added.

Sources told Reuters that Marocco, who was the director of foreign assistance at the state department, may have been pushed out but they declined to give further explanation.

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A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to unfreeze federal funding that was allocated to Maine from the U.S. Department of Agriculture — funds that had been withheld following President Trump's clash with Maine Gov. Janet Mills over the issue of transgender athletes.

U.S. District Court Judge John Woodcock granted Maine's request for a temporary restraining order on Friday. The USDA is just one of the agencies where federal funding for Maine has been threatened. The agency did not immediately respond to request for a comment.

The feud between Trump and the state of Maine began after the president issued an executive order in early February barring transgender student athletes from playing on girls' sports teams. The order also calls for the federal government "to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities."

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The Vermont senator Bernie Sanders drew a record-breaking crowd at his rally in Los Angeles on Saturday, which included musical acts from Joan Baez and Neil Young, who encouraged the crowd to “take America back”.

Sanders’s Fighting Oligarchy: Where We Go from Here tour has been drawing massive crowds. Aided by the progressive New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the team set the record in Tempe, Arizona, for biggest-ever political rally in that state three weeks ago. In Denver, Colorado, more than 34,000 people showed up – a career-high crowd for the 83-year-old Sanders. Saturday in Los Angeles saw another record: at least 36,000 people packed a downtown park.

A host of musical acts kicked off the high-energy event, including the indie rock band The Red Pears, Maggie Rogers, Indigo de Souza, and legends Baez and Young.

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Harvard University faculty sued the Trump administration on Friday over a federal assessment of the school’s spending amid allegations of their “failure” to protect students from antisemitism.

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and its campus chapter are both plaintiffs in the lawsuit which said failures were “unspecified” according to legal documents.

In the filing they noted that Harvard received policy demands from the administration in a letter outlining steps to keep $9 billion in federal funding.

“Harvard, like all American universities, depends on federal funding to conduct its academic research. Threats like these are an existential ‘gun to the head’ for a university,” the lawsuit reads.

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Donald Trump shows no signs of easing his assault on climate science as plans of more sweeping cuts to key US research centers surfaced on Friday.

The administration is planning to slash budgets at both the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (Noaa) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), according to internal budget documents, taking aim specifically at programs used to study impacts from the climate crisis.

Craig McLean, a longtime director of the office of oceanic and atmospheric research (OAR) who retired in 2022, told the Guardian that the cuts were draconian and would “compromise the safety, economic competitiveness, and security of the American people”.

If the plan is approved by Congress, funding for OAR would be eviscerated – cut from $485m to $171m – dismantling an important part of the agency’s mission.

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The state department is ordering staff to report colleagues for instances of “anti-Christian bias” during the Biden administration, part of Donald Trump’s aggressive push to reshape government policy on religious expression in his first months back in office.

The internal cable, obtained by the Guardian, establishes a short seven-day window for employees to report perceived religious discrimination committed by state department officials, with particular emphasis on Christianity.

“The department is seeking submissions regarding any practices involving anti-religious bias during the last presidential administration,” the Friday cable reads, instructing staff to report to a specially created taskforce by 18 April.

The cable, first reported by Politico, points back to Trump’s February executive order aimed at ending “the anti-Christian weaponization of government,” and indicates that the department will offer preferential treatment for Christians.

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