A federal judge has temporarily blocked Donald Trump’s plan to get rid of government employees by offering them a payout.

The ruling came hours before the midnight deadline for workers to apply for the “fork in the road” deferred resignation programme – which has been commonly described as a buyout.

US district judge George O’Toole Jr, in Boston, did not express an opinion on the legality of the programme but scheduled a hearing for Monday at 2pm local time (7pm in the UK).

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He also directed administration officials to extend the deadline for the programme until after the hearing.

Mr O’Toole could opt to delay the scheme further or block it on a more permanent basis when he considers the legal challenge from unions on Monday.

The offer promises to pay employees their salaries until 30 September – but current spending laws expire on 14 March and it isn’t clear whether salaries will be funded beyond this point.

It comes as on Thursday, Mr Trump is set to sign more executive orders, one imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court and another tackling what he called anti-Christian bias.

The worker buyout scheme is part of a broader move from Mr Trump’s administration to shrink and reshape the federal government.

An important aspect of that has been Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency – and he orchestrated the federal worker buyout scheme as well.

Responding to the development, press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Sky News’ US partner NBC News: “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.”

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She also said that more than 40,000 people had accepted the buyout so far – this figure corresponds to around 2% of the federal government’s 2.3 million civilian workforce.

NBC News reported this figure to be higher, at 60,000, citing a senior administration official.

Around 6% of federal workers retire or resign in a normal year, according to the Partnership for Public Service.

Labour unions and opposing Democrats have said the offer is not trustworthy.

The buyout covers not just employees at domestic agencies, like the Environmental Protection Agency, but intelligence agencies like the CIA as well.

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The administration also warned those who do not accept the buyout could still lose their jobs.

This is the latest of Mr Trump’s efforts to be blocked by a judge over concerns of legality.

Mr Trump’s effort to block birthright US citizenship has been blocked by a second federal judge in two days.

Donald Trump is not a man in the habit of backing down.

His astonishing proposal to “own” Gaza and relocate two million Palestinians has faced unanimous opposition from America’s allies, but the president now has a plan and woe betide anyone who gets in the way. And that includes international law.

“The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of the fighting,” he wrote on Truth Social.

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Nevermind that Gaza is not Israel’s land to turn over.

“The Palestinians… would have already been settled in safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region.”

Nevermind that most countries in the region have angrily opposed this suggestion.

Aware, perhaps, that the prospect of US troops being sent to Gaza, possibly for decades, would meet opposition in Congress, Trump added “no soldiers by the US would be needed!”

Well that clears one question up. But who would be responsible for security in Gaza then?

Local police officers who are affiliated to Hamas? Private security contractors made of former American soldiers, operating under rules of engagement set by who?

While most of the world is recoiling at all this, in Israel they are leaning into it. Hard.

The defence minister, Israel Katz, has ordered the IDF to prepare plans to allow Gazans to leave by land, sea or air. This is being framed as voluntary migration, giving Gazans the freedom to leave for a better life elsewhere.

Some might. But what if most don’t. Then what?

Voluntary migration sounds nice and all, but how voluntary would it be, really?

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Palestinians, human rights organisations and others argue that after 15 and a half months of constant bombardment, Israel has left Gaza uninhabitable and so any departure would be down the barrel of guns that have been pointing at them for almost a year and a half.

Faced with all this, Trump, Netanyahu and their ministers continue to insist that only they know what’s best for Gazans.

Has anyone actually asked the people of Gaza?

Donald Trump has signed an executive order banning trans women athletes from competing in female sports.

The move is designed to prevent people who were biologically assigned male at birth from participating in certain sporting events, including those at school.

The order, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports”, will call for “immediate enforcement” against schools and athletic associations that deny women single-sex sports and single-sex changing rooms.

It also coincides with National Girls and Women in Sports Day and it marks another notable shift in the way the federal government treats transgender people under Mr Trump.

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Ahead of signing the order, Mr Trump said: “From now on women’s sports will be only for women.

“We’ve gotten the woke lunacy out of our military and now we’re getting it out of women’s sports.”

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He also spoke about the coming Olympics and World Cup which the US is hosting, and said he wouldn’t allow any transgender athletes to compete.

He went on: “In Los Angeles in 2028, my administration will not stand by and watch men beat and batter female athletes.

“We’re not going to let it happen.

“Just to make sure, I’m also directing our secretary of homeland security to deny any and all visa applications made by men attempting to fraudulently enter the US while identifying as women athletes to try and get into the games.”

In signing the order, surrounded by a number of women and girls, Mr Trump claimed “the war on women’s sports is over”.

The order authorises the education department to penalise schools that allow transgender athletes to compete and any school found in violation could lose its federal funding.

Despite their small numbers within America, transgender people have been the target of three orders signed by Mr Trump since coming into office, Sky News’ US partner NBC News reported.

These targeted participation in the military and access to gender-affirming care.

On his very first day in office last month, Mr Trump passed one order that called on the federal government to only recognise two genders – male and female.

During his campaign, he pledged to “keep men out of women’s sports” and get rid of the “transgender insanity” but his office offered little in the way of details.

Olivia Hunt, director of federal policy at Advocates for Trans Equality, told Sky News’ Yalda Hakim that the order wasn’t just about elite athletes but would impact young children and their development too.

She said: “We’re basically taking those children and saying to them we don’t think it’s vital that you learn the same sets of skills that your peers develop [playing sports].

“We are setting you aside, putting you apart, and saying you’re different and it’s okay for you to be set aside, treated differently, and bullied by your peers.

“Children should be protected. Children should be allowed to follow their interests, follow the sports they want to participate in and not have to worry that public officials will treat their existence as a cheap round of applause.”

This is the latest in a flurry of executive orders the Republican president has enacted in his first days and weeks in office.

Some of these have been blocked by judges, and it is not yet clear if this order will avoid such a fate.

It will likely involve how the Trump administration interprets Title IX – a civil rights law that prevents sex-based discrimination in education programmes or activities that receive federal funding.

Ahead of the signing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the order “upholds the promise of Title IX”.

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‘A solution looking for a problem’

It is not clear how many trans athletes are competing in the US, but cases like Lia Thomas swimming for the University of Pennsylvania have drawn attention in the past.

Cheryl Cooky, a professor at Purdue University who studies the intersection of gender, sports, media and culture, described the order as a “solution looking for a problem”.

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Doriane Lambelet Coleman, a professor at Duke Law School, pointed out that Mr Trump could have just “read the [existing] regulation traditionally” to achieve the same goals, instead of introducing the new executive orders.