UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer got a pat on the back from US President Donald Trump when saying Hamas is a terrorist organisation that can have no place in Palestinian governance. Starmer added that the group is not interested in peace nor a ceasefire.
Published On 18 Sep 202518 Sep 2025
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Employees expressed outrage over budget cuts, personnel decisions and other reforms enacted under President Donald Trump.
Some employees at the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have been put on leave after they signed an open letter of dissent against the agency’s leadership, according to the nonprofit that published the letter.
The employees were placed on administrative leave on Tuesday after they signed an open letter a day earlier – on the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina – expressing outrage over budget cuts, personnel decisions and other reforms enacted under President Donald Trump, which they say could recreate conditions that led to the widely criticised FEMA response to the 2005 hurricane.
“We can confirm multiple FEMA employees who publicly signed the Katrina Declaration have been placed on administrative leave,” nonprofit group Stand Up for Science said in a statement on Tuesday.
The development is likely to fuel concerns that US President Donald Trump’s administration does not tolerate dissent. In July, the US Environmental Protection Agency placed 139 employees on administrative leave after they signed a letter expressing criticism of Trump’s policies.
The Stand Up for Science website said the letter had more than 190 signatories as of Tuesday evening, the majority signing anonymously due to fears of retaliation.
“Around 30” employees were suspended, The New York Times reported on Tuesday evening, citing their review of emails.
“Once again, we are seeing the federal government retaliate against our civil servants for whistleblowing – which is both illegal and a deep betrayal of the most dedicated among us,” Stand Up for Science said.
FEMA employee Virginia Case told CNN she received an emailed notice on Tuesday evening that she’d been placed on paid leave from her job as a supervisory management and programme analyst.
“I’m disappointed but not surprised,” Case said, according to the US outlet.
“I’m also proud of those of us who stood up, regardless of what it might mean for our jobs. The public deserves to know what’s happening because lives and communities will suffer if this continues.”
The Washington Post reported that the suspended employees will still continue to receive pay and benefits.
FEMA’s press secretary said on Monday the agency has been bogged down by red tape and inefficiencies, and the Trump administration “has made accountability and reform a priority”.
However, since his return to the White House in January, Trump has stated that he wants to abolish FEMA and let states “take care of their own problems”.
Roughly 2,000 FEMA employees, or a third of its workforce, have left the agency this year through firings, buyouts or early retirements.
Hurricane Katrina caused catastrophic flooding in New Orleans, killing more than 1,800 people. It was one of the worst natural disasters in US history, in part because of the ineffective response to it. Congress passed the Post-Katrina Emergency Reform Act in 2006 to give FEMA more responsibility.
The letter warned the Trump administration was undoing those reforms.
UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese tells Al Jazeera Washington’s move is retaliation for ‘pursuit of justice’ in Israel’s war on Gaza.
United Nations expert Francesca Albanese has slammed the decision by the United States to sanction her as “obscene”, saying she is being targeted for calling out Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Speaking to Al Jazeera on Thursday, Albanese, who serves as the UN’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, said she would not be cowed into silence by the US move against her on Wednesday.
Albanese stressed that the penalties imposed by President Donald Trump’s administration would not stop her “quest for [the] respect of justice and international law”.
The special rapporteur said Washington’s tactics reminded her of “Mafia intimidation techniques” before suggesting that “sanctions will only work if people are scared and stop engaging”.
“I want to remind everyone [that] the reason why these sanctions are being imposed is the pursuit of justice,” Albanese said.
“Of course I’ve been critical of Israel. It has been committing genocide and crimes against humanity and war crimes,” she added.
While announcing the sanctions on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio charged Albanese with waging a “campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel”.
The UN rapporteur hit back on Thursday, noting that the atrocities being committed in Gaza were not just down to “the unrelinquished territorial ambitions of Israel” and the backing of its supporters but also “companies who are profiting from it”.
Last week, she released a report mapping the corporations aiding Israel in the displacement of Palestinians and its genocidal war on Gaza in breach of international law.
Albanese told Al Jazeera that she was still evaluating the effects the US sanctions would have on her.
However, she said her problems are nothing compared with what Palestinians face in Gaza during Israel’s ongoing bombardments, ground operations and blockade of the territory.
Albanese also took aim at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), calling it a “death trap”. The Israeli- and US-backed group runs the aid distribution sites where hundreds of Palestinians have been shot and killed since late May while queueing for food.
The UN expert also defended the International Criminal Court’s (ICC’s) investigation into Israeli actions in Gaza and its decision to call for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s arrest on charges of war crimes.
Rubio has described Albanese’s push for the prosecution of Israeli officials at the ICC as the legal basis for the sanctions.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s spokesman was among those to criticise the US sanctions on Albanese.
While highlighting that Albanese reports to the UN Human Rights Council rather than the secretary-general, Stephane Dujarric called the decision “a dangerous precedent”.
“The use of unilateral sanctions against special rapporteurs or any other UN expert or official is unacceptable,” he said.
UN Human Rights Council Ambassador Jurg Lauber also lamented the move against Albanese.
“I call on all UN member states to fully cooperate with the special rapporteurs and mandate holders of the council and to refrain from any acts of intimidation or reprisal against them,” Lauber said.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has destroyed most of the territory and killed more than 57,575 Palestinians over the past 21 months, according to local health officials.
Israel often labels anyone who criticises its devastating war on Gaza as ‘anti-Semtic’.
Israel has a long history of dismissing any legitimate criticism it faces as “anti-Semitic”.
So, how can anyone challenge Israel’s war on Gaza or its military raids in the occupied West Bank, without running the risk of being called anti-Semitic?
Or is this an easy way of shutting down any debate about Israel’s occupation?
Presenter: Tom McRae
Guests:
Phyllis Bennis – Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and international adviser at Jewish Voice for Peace
Saba-Nur Cheema – Political scientist at Goethe University Frankfurt
Gideon Levy – Columnist at Haaretz Newspaper