President Donald Trump has decided to remove security clearances for several Democrats, including former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and New York Attorney General Letitia James, both of whom are vocal Trump critics. 

Former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Biden’s Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, and attorneys Andrew Weissmann, Mark Zaid and Norm Eisen.

The move comes a day after Trump stripped his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, of his security clearance and his access to presidential daily briefs. 

‘There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information,’ Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social Friday night.

He added the precedent was set by Biden himself.

‘He set this precedent in 2021, when he instructed the Intelligence Community (IC) to stop the 45th President of the United States (ME!) from accessing details on National Security, a courtesy provided to former Presidents,’ Trump wrote.

Alexandra Koch contributed to this report. 

One of the attorneys representing anonymous FBI agents suing the Department of Justice to block the public identification of agents who investigated Jan. 6 is a longtime anti-Trump lawyer who worked with House Democrats on President Donald Trump’s first impeachment. 

Norm Eisen is an attorney, CNN legal analyst and expert at the Brookings Institution public policy think tank who previously served as the U.S.’ ambassador to the Czech Republic and special counsel for ethics and government reform under the Obama administration, when he earned the nicknames ‘Dr. No’ and ‘The Fun Sponge’ for reportedly ensuring the administration abide by ethics rules. 

Eisen appeared in court on Thursday for a hearing before U.S. District Judge Jia M. Cobb involving a pair of lawsuits filed by two groups of FBI agents who investigated the Jan. 6 breach of the Capitol Building as well as former special counsel Jack Smith’s investigations and cases against Trump. 

Eisen serves as executive chair of State Democracy Defenders Fund, which filed a lawsuit Tuesday on behalf of the FBI agents who investigated Trump-related cases. State Democracy Defenders Fund is a nonprofit that bills itself as focused on defeating ‘election sabotage’ and ‘autocracy in 2025 — and beyond.’

‘Credible reports indicate the FBI has been directed to systematically terminate all Bureau employees who had any involvement in investigations related to President Trump, and that Trump’s allies in the DOJ are planning to publicly disseminate the names of those employees they plan to terminate,’ State Democracy Defenders Fund wrote in its press release of the emergency order to block the public release of FBI personnel names involved in the Jan. 6 investigation. 

Fox News Digital took a look back on Eisen’s rhetoric and actions across the past few years and found that he has repeatedly been at the forefront of the legal cases against Trump, notably serving as co-counsel for the House Judiciary Committee during the first impeachment of Trump beginning in 2019. 

House Democrats tapped Eisen — who early in his career specialized in financial fraud litigation and investigations — to help lead the first impeachment against the 45th president, which accused Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress related to allegedly seeking foreign interference from Ukraine to boost his re-election efforts in 2020. The House adopted two articles of impeachment against Trump, but the Senate ultimately voted to acquit him. 

Eisen revealed following the impeachment effort that he initially drafted 10 articles of impeachment against Trump, not just two, which would have included issues such as ‘hush money’ payments to former porn star Stormy Daniels. Although the payments were not included in the impeachment articles, they were a focal point of the Manhattan v. Trump trial that found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in May 2024. 

‘This was only the third impeachment trial of a president in American history, so it’s remarkable that we even got those two,’ Eisen said in an NPR interview in 2020. ‘I will tell you that those two articles are a microcosm of all 10 of the impeachment articles that we drafted. They have features of all 10.’ 

Eisen told Fox News Digital, when asked about his history of anti-Trump cases, that he was initially open to working with the first Trump administration, but that the president, ‘turned against the Constitution.’

‘I was initially open to Trump and even advised his first presidential transition,’ Eisen told Fox Digital in an emailed comment on Friday. ‘But he turned against the Constitution and laws.’

‘In his first administration and now, he was and is using the presidency to break the law and to help himself and his cronies like Elon Musk — not the American people,’ he continued. ‘To ensure the integrity of our democracy, I am pushing back through the bipartisan institutions I work with such as State Democracy Defenders Fund, which has strong conservative representation on our board.’ 

Eisen is the co-founder of the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which made waves in 2023 and 2024 when it helped to initiate a Colorado court case to remove Trump from the primary ballot in the state, The New York Times reported.  

The lawsuit, which ultimately landed in the Supreme Court, argued that Trump should be deemed ineligible from holding political office under a Civil War-era insurrection clause and that his name should thus be barred from appearing on the 2024 ballot. The group said that Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, when supporters breached the U.S. Capitol, violated a clause in the 14th Amendment that prevents officers of the United States, members of Congress or state legislatures who ‘engaged in insurrection or rebellion’ against the Constitution from holding political office.

Other states made similar legal claims to remove Trump, but each of the nine Supreme Court justices ruled in Trump’s favor in a decision released last March, ending the Colorado case and all others that were similar. 

The State Democracy Defenders Action, which Eisen co-founded, has also been involved with other Trump-involved court cases, including in the Manhattan v. Trump case. The group helped file an amicus brief in February, advocating that presiding Judge Juan Merchan sentence Trump just days ahead of his inauguration. Trump was ultimately sentenced to unconditional discharge, meaning he faces no fines or jail time. 

​​Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the Manhattan case in May 2024. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office worked to prove that Trump had falsified business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to former porn star, Stormy Daniels, ahead of the 2016 election to quiet her claims of an alleged affair with Trump in 2006.

Eisen also founded another group, the States United Democracy Center, which filed an amicus brief in 2024 in Fulton County, Georgia, court, advocating that District Attorney Fani Willis’ racketeering case against Trump not be dismissed. 

The Georgia Court of Appeals ruled in December 2024 that Willis and her office are barred from prosecuting the case. The case worked to prove that Trump had led a ‘criminal racketeering enterprise’ to change the outcome of the 2020 election in Georgia. Trump has maintained his innocence in that case, as well as the other federal and state charges brought against him between the 2020 and 2024 election, slamming them as Democrat lawfare. 

Eisen, in his capacity as executive chair and founder of State Democracy Defenders Fund, also sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and ranking Committee Member Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. on Monday to speak out against Kash Patel’s nomination as director of the FBI under the second Trump administration. Eisen said he had ethics concerns surrounding Patel’s previous work in Qatar. 

The FBI lawsuits followed acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove sending a memo to acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll in late January, directing him to fire eight FBI employees who worked on the Jan. 6 investigation, as well as a terror case related to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack against Israel. The memo also informed the acting director to identify all current and former FBI personnel who took part in the case. 

The memo’s directive to identify those involved in the case sparked the two FBI lawsuits filed Tuesday, which seek to stop the collection of names and their public release. 

‘The individuals being targeted have served in law enforcement for decades, often putting their lives on the line for the citizens of this country,’ Eisen said in a statement provided in State Democracy Defenders Fund’s press release announcing it filed an emergency order on behalf of the FBI agents. ‘Their rights and privacy must be preserved.’

The judge temporarily barred the Trump DOJ on Thursday from disclosing information on the agents until she hears arguments and determines whether to issue a temporary restraining order. 

Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch and Brooke Singman contributed to this report. 

If you listen to the Democrats these days you will hear lamentations about the deep cuts the Trump Administration is making to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Lives will be lost, they insist.

But, curiously, outside of the United States, there has been a deafening silence in regard to this massive shift in how America goes about funding various projects around the world, and even some support for the changes from unlikely quarters.

Take the president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, who shocked his CNN interviewer this week by saying of the cuts to USAID, ‘President Trump has unconventional ways of dealing with things. I completely agree with him.’ When pressed on the support his nation’s people may lose, he replied, ‘We might learn some lessons.’

The point that Kagame is making, and it is a wise one, is that Africa needs to be more self-sufficient and not permanently a needy client state of global powers, including America. USAID and the State Department dole out most of the roughly $70 billion in annual foreign aid from the U.S. But much of USAID’s funding is passed directly to various groups and projects that may or may not align with the recipient’s government. 

In Hungary, President Viktor Orban has gone a step further than applauding Trump’s USAID actions. His nation is making it illegal for many anti-government organizations to accept foreign aid from our country.

What started out as an opportunity to spread the basic American ideals of freedom and democracy turned into anti-democratic attempts to affect political change in other nations that border on imperialism.

‘Now is the moment when these international networks have to be taken down, they have to be swept away,’ Orban said this week, alleging that American foreign aid funds have been used in attempts to ‘topple’ his government.

Orban has a point. There is a fine line between, for example, exporting the American value of a free press by funding Hungarian news outlets, and interfering in Hungarian elections, especially if the news outlets are essentially mouthpieces for opposition parties.

The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, seconded Orban’s assessment in an X post in which he wrote that most nations don’t want the aid. ‘While marketed as support for development, democracy, and human rights, the majority of these funds are funneled into opposition groups, NGOs with political agendas, and destabilizing movements.’

U.S. foreign aid serves two basic purposes. The first is economic: We buy a certain amount of allegiance from developing nations with our largesse, as well as eventual access to their markets.

The second is informational: We get a megaphone to try to make those nations more like America and less like China. 

USAID is an independent agency established by President John F. Kennedy, but President Trump has moved to put it under Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Although Rubio has proposed deep personnel cuts, he has assured Americans that important, life-saving, economic aid that is in line with America’s interests will be protected by his department. And few argue we should simply shut down medical clinics or stop sending mosquito nets to Africa.

Even Kagame envisions his continent being weaned off of a need for foreign assistance, not quite going cold turkey.

No, where the real issue lies is in the informational purpose of foreign aid. What started out as an opportunity to spread the basic American ideals of freedom and democracy turned into anti-democratic attempts to affect political change in other nations that border on imperialism.

Moreover, the side order of wokeness that comes with American foreign aid these days, in areas like gender and sexuality, are not only unwelcome in many third world nations, but it can actually retard those societies’ natural evolution towards greater tolerance.

It is difficult at the moment to understand exactly what changes are being made to foreign aid. Beyond the dramatic removal of agency names on buildings and announced layoffs, it’s not clear what aid we are keeping and what we are disposing of.

Ultimately, it is Rubio who has put himself in charge of foreign aid and the future of USAID. It is his responsibility to separate the wheat from the chaff, the programs that both save lives and advance American interests, versus those driven by partisan ideology.

What is not acceptable to the American people, or it seems to many global leaders, is that American foreign aid continues with the status quo. Trump was elected to make concrete changes to how we influence and interact with the world.

Trump and Rubio earned and deserve this chance to dramatically change and fix an aspect of our foreign policy that has been broken for decades, that has lost sight of its mission and that has often wrought more harm than good.

This can be a new age for American foreign aid, and a much more successful one. 

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has taken a satirical jab at President Donald Trump’s effort to rename the Gulf of Mexico and annex Greenland. 

A straight-faced Pritzker released a choreographed video on Friday, with fake camera shutter clicks going off in the background, where he asserts that he is renaming Lake Michigan to ‘Lake Illinois,’ poking fun at Trump’s recent executive order where he changed the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America.

‘The world’s finest geographers, experts who study the Earth’s natural environment, have concluded a decades-long council and determined that a great lake deserves to be named after a great state,’ Pritzker said. 

‘So today, I’m issuing a proclamation declaring that hereinafter, Lake Michigan shall be known as Lake Illinois. The proclamation has been forwarded to Google to ensure the world’s maps reflect this momentous change.’

Trump signed Executive Order 14172 on his first day back in office which changed the name of the ocean basin. The order also renamed the highest peak in North America to ‘Mount McKinley,’ reversing the 2015 decision to call it by its centuries-old name Denali.

Google has said it will make Trump’s changes once the Department of the Interior updates the Geographic Names Information System. As of today, Google Maps still refers to it as the Gulf of Mexico.

In the video, Pritzker then switches his attention to Green Bay, a Wisconsin city near Lake Michigan. And just like how Trump vowed to take over Greenland from Denmark, Pritzker pledged to snap up Green Bay from The Badger State.  

‘In addition, the recent announcement that to protect the homeland, the United States will be purchasing Greenland… Illinois will now be annexing Green Bay to protect itself against enemies, foreign and domestic,’ Pritzker said. 

‘I’ve also instructed my team to work diligently to prepare for an important announcement next week regarding the Mississippi River.’

‘God bless America and bear down,’ Pritzker said, a nod to Wisconsin’s Green Bay Packers, one of Chicago Bears’ biggest rivals.

The video comes on the heels of a Justice Department lawsuit filed against the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago for allegedly interfering with federal immigration enforcement with its sanctuary polices.

The lawsuit claims that several state and local laws are designed to interfere with the federal government’s enforcement of federal immigration law in violation of the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution.

Pritzker and Trump have also clashed over Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship, with Pritzker declaring the move unconstitutional. 

Trump’s order, ‘Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,’ asserts that the 14th Amendment of the Constitution does not automatically confer American citizenship to individuals who are born within the United States. 

They also feuded during Trump’s first term in office when Pritzker claimed the state only recovered a quarter of its requested personal protective equipment from the federal government.

The healthcare industry has recently been a major target for hackers. You might remember the 2024 Ascension attack, which led to significant disruptions. 

The Change Healthcare breach was also on a massive scale. UnitedHealth initially claimed that 100 million Americans were affected, but later raised that number to 190 million. 

There have been countless other incidents, and now you can add another to the list. Community Health Center, Inc. (CHC), a Connecticut-based federally qualified health center, has disclosed a data breach following a criminal cyberattack on its systems. 

The attack has affected over a million people in the U.S.

What You Need to Know

Community Health Center, Inc. (CHC) detected a data breach on Jan. 2 after identifying unusual activity within its computer systems. An investigation confirmed that a skilled hacker had accessed and extracted data but did not delete or lock any information. If CHC’s claims are accurate, this is a positive outcome, as hackers often deploy ransomware, a type of attack in which they lock systems and demand payment before restoring access.

In a regulatory filing with the Maine Attorney General’s Office, CHC said that 1,060,936 people were affected by the data breach. The type of information compromised varies depending on an individual’s relationship with CHC. Patient data that may have been accessed includes names, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, diagnoses, treatment details, test results, Social Security numbers and health insurance information.

For individuals who are not regular CHC patients but received COVID-19 services at a CHC clinic, the breached data may include names, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, addresses, gender, race, ethnicity and insurance details if provided. Additional information, such as test dates, results and vaccine details, including type, dose and administration date, may also have been affected. In rare cases, Social Security numbers were also included in the breach.

The organization did not disclose how the hackers gained access to the data or whether proper cybersecurity measures were in place at the time of the breach. While CHC has assured that its systems are no longer at risk, the same cannot be said for its patients, who may now be targets of various cyberattacks.

CHC’s response

CHC said the hacker’s access was terminated within hours, and daily operations were not disrupted. To strengthen cybersecurity, CHC claims it has implemented advanced monitoring software and reinforced system protections. The organization said there is no evidence at this time that the compromised data has been misused.

The health center is offering free identity theft protection services for all patients and COVID-19 service recipients whose Social Security numbers were involved in the breach. The organization is also encouraging individuals whose Social Security numbers were not affected to take additional steps to protect their information.

6 ways to protect yourself from Change Healthcare data breach

The breach has exposed sensitive personal data, making it essential to reduce your online footprint. While no service can guarantee complete data removal, a reputable data removal service can significantly limit your exposure. These services systematically monitor and erase your personal information from numerous websites and data brokers. Check out my top picks for data removal services here.

With addresses among the compromised data, scammers may exploit this breach to send fraudulent letters. Be aware of mail claiming missed deliveries, account suspensions or security alerts. Always verify the authenticity of such communications before responding or taking action.

Scammers may use your compromised email or phone number to target you with phishing attacks. Be wary of messages asking for personal information or containing suspicious links. To protect yourself, ensure strong antivirus software is installed on all your devices. Get my picks for the best 2025 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices.

Given the scope of this breach, regular monitoring of your bank accounts, credit card statements and other financial accounts is critical. Look for unauthorized transactions or suspicious activity, and report any issues immediately to your bank or credit card provider.

If your Social Security number is exposed, you could become a target for related scams. Official communication regarding Social Security issues usually comes via mail, not phone calls or emails. Learn more about spotting and reporting scams by visiting the Social Security Administration’s scam information page.

Data breaches happen every day, and most never make the headlines, but with an identity theft protection service, you’ll be notified if and when you are affected. An identity theft protection service can monitor personal information like your Social Security number (SSN), phone number and email address and alert you if it is being sold on the dark web or being used to open an account. It can also assist you in freezing your bank and credit card accounts to prevent further unauthorized use by criminals.

One of the best parts of using an identity theft protection service is that it might include identity theft insurance of up to $1 million to cover losses and legal fees and a white glove fraud resolution team where a U.S.-based case manager helps you recover any losses. See my tips and best picks on how to protect yourself from identity theft. 

Kurt’s key takeaway

The CHC breach may not be as large as the UnitedHealth attack, but with over a million individuals affected, it’s still a serious incident. Cybercriminals can exploit stolen data in various ways, from identity theft to targeted phishing scams. While CHC has taken steps to secure its systems, those impacted should remain vigilant. Be wary of unexpected emails, calls or messages requesting personal information, and consider monitoring financial and medical accounts for any suspicious activity.

Do you think these companies are doing enough to protect your data, and is the government doing enough to catch those behind cyberattacks? Let us know by writing us at 

For more of my tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to 

Ask Kurt a question or let us know what stories you’d like us to cover.

Follow Kurt on his social channels for the latest tech tips and tricks:

Facebook
YouTube
Instagram

Answers to the most-asked CyberGuy questions:

What is the best way to protect your Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android devices from getting hacked?
What is the best way to stay private, secure and anonymous while browsing the web?
How can I get rid of robocalls with apps and data removal services?
How do I remove my private data from the internet?

New from Kurt:

Try CyberGuy’s new games (crosswords, word searches, trivia and more!)

Copyright 2025 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved.

President Donald Trump’s decision to cut foreign aid funding could strengthen the president’s bargaining position as he looks to contain Iran.

‘I look at the USAID cutoff and the praise that the Iranians have given as part of President Trump’s negotiating skills,’ EJ Kimball, director of Policy & Strategic Operations at the U.S. Israel Education Association, told Fox News Digital.

The comments come after Trump’s controversial decision to halt funding for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and send most of the employees of USAID packing, part of the administration’s plan to weed out what it considers wasteful government spending.

Despite the controversy, the decision has received praise from the Iranian regime, who have traditionally viewed U.S. aid to Iran as a threat to the country’s government.

According to a report from The Associated Press on Wednesday, Trump’s move has been ‘lauded’ in Iranian state media, who view the cuts to foreign aid as a blow to pro-democracy activists Iran believes have benefited from U.S. foreign aid.

The favorable perception of Trump’s move by Iran comes at a critical time, with Trump recently renewing the U.S.’s ‘maximum pressure’ campaign on Iran and reaffirming the U.S. position that Iran can never be allowed to possess nuclear weapons.

While Trump has used harsh rhetoric on Iran in recent days, including a vow to ‘obliterate’ the country if it successfully carries out an alleged plot to assassinate him, the president has also urged the regime to begin negotiating for a ‘nuclear peace agreement’ with the United States.

‘I want Iran to be a great and successful Country, but one that cannot have a Nuclear Weapon. Reports that the United States, working in conjunction with Israel, is going to blow Iran into smithereens ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED,’ Trump wrote in a post on social media Wednesday.

Kimball believes Trump can use the cuts to foreign aid as a bargaining chip in those potential negotiations, noting the president could change his mind and resume the funding if the Iranians fail to reach an acceptable deal.

‘I would say that he’s teasing the Iranians at the moment, knowing that really at any moment’s notice, he could immediately turn back on the spigot of funding to the opposition groups if he doesn’t feel like they’re acquiescing to his demands or negotiation,’ Kimball said.

‘It seems to me that he’s got a carrot-and-stick approach with the Iranian regime, and pausing funding for regime critics, teasing a deal, but also threatening sanctions, and talking to Israel about a military strike and how Iran will not get nuclear weapons is part of his master negotiating skills to keep his opponents off balance,’ Kimball added.

In the end, Kimball believes Trump’s ultimate goal is to cut a deal that would eliminate Iran’s nuclear program without putting U.S. service members in harm’s way in another overseas conflict.

‘It’s been very clear he does not want to send U.S. troops to war, but he’s also not going to be soft about it and allow the taking of a bad deal to avoid war,’ Kimball said. ‘The end goal for President Trump is a deal that removes the threat that Iran poses to the United States, to Israel, to the region, and really to the entire world, not just in their nuclear program, but in their ballistic missile development and delivery systems to ensure that Iran can be great again.’

Eli Sharabi, who was ripped from his home in Kibbutz Be’eri by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7 attacks, has returned to Israel after 491 days in captivity. Sharabi’s family watched excitedly as he returned home, but three people were noticeably absent. Sharabi will not be greeted by his wife or daughters because Hamas terrorists murdered them during the 2023 massacre.

Sharabi and his family lived on Kibbutz Be’eri, a border community in southern Israel that was hit particularly hard on Oct. 7, 2023. In January 2024, just months after Hamas’ attacks, Israel confirmed that Sharabi’s brother, Yossi, who was also taken hostage, was killed in captivity.

Kibbutz Be’eri saw 98 men, women and children slaughtered in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks and 30 kidnapped. Among them were Sharabi and Ohad Ben-Ami, who was also released on Feb. 8, 2025. The kidnapped and killed accounted for approximately a tenth of the population of Kibbutz Be’eri, which is less than four miles from the Gaza border.

It is unclear whether Sharabi knows what happened to his wife, Lianne, and daughters, Noiya, 16, and Yahel, 13. It is also unknown whether Or Levy, who was taken from the Nova festival and released to Israel on Saturday, is aware that his wife was killed on Oct. 7, 2023.

Sharabi is not the first hostage to be released from captivity to a reality without his wife and children. Yarden Bibas, who was taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz, was released from Hamas captivity on Feb. 1, after spending over 480 days as a hostage in Gaza. Yarden’s wife, Shiri, and their two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, remain in Hamas captivity.

The image of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas’ kidnapping went viral as the two red-headed boys were seen clinging to their mother. Kfir, who is now two years old, was just nine months old when he was kidnapped, making him the youngest hostage. Ariel and Kfir are the only children taken on Oct. 7 who remain in Gaza. The condition of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir remains unknown.

‘Sadly, my family hasn’t returned to me yet. They are still there. My light is still there, and as long as they’re there, everything here is dark. Thanks to you, I was brought back – help me bring the light back to my life,’ Yarden said in a statement distributed by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. This is his first statement since being freed.

While in captivity, Bibas was forced to make a hostage film in which he was seen breaking down as Hamas claimed his wife and children had been killed. Hamas often uses these types of videos as part of what the IDF calls ‘psychological terror.’ However, the terror organization included Shiri, Kfir and Ariel on the list of 33 hostages set to be released in the first phase of the ceasefire deal.

Yarden referenced the video in his statement and made a plea directly to Prime Minister Netanyahu.

‘Prime Minister Netanyahu, I’m now addressing you with my own words, which no one dictated to me: Bring my family back. Bring my friends back. Bring everyone home.’

The release of Sharabi, Levy and Ben-Ami marks the fifth round of hostage releases. While they too were forced to participate in a ceremony with Hamas prior to leaving Gaza, the images of the three men were strikingly different from many of those who had been freed before them. The three of them looked starved and exhausted, with many on social media comparing them to Holocaust victims.

Israeli President Isaace Herzog said that the ’emaciated and pained’ men were a visual representation of a ‘crime against humanity.’ In response to the images of the men, Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed to take action, saying their condition would ‘not be ignored.’

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Ruby and Hagit Chen, whose son Itay Chen remains in Hamas captivity, noted the ‘disturbing images’ and demanded Netanyahu begin ‘intensive negotiations’ to bring the remaining hostages, including their son, home.

There are still 76 hostages in Hamas captivity, many of whom are believed to be alive. So far, as part of the current ceasefire deal, Hamas has released 18 hostages. In exchange for the hostages, Israel has released more than 550 Palestinian prisoners.

A federal judge on Friday ordered a temporary block on plans by the Trump administration to put 2,200 employees of the U.S. Agency for International Development on leave.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, also agreed to block an order that would have given just 30 days for the thousands of overseas USAID workers the administration wanted to place on abrupt administrative leave to move their families back to the U.S. at the government’s expense.

Both actions by the administration would have exposed the workers and their families to unnecessary risk and expense, according to the judge.

This comes as President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who leads the Department of Government Efficiency, seek to dismantle the agency.

Nichols noted that staffers living overseas have said the administration had cut some workers off from government emails and other communication systems required to reach the U.S. government in case of a health or safety emergency.

USAID contractors in various regions, including the Middle East, even reported that ‘panic button’ apps had been removed from their phones or disabled when the administration abruptly placed them on leave.

‘Administrative leave in Syria is not the same as administrative leave in Bethesda,’ the judge said.

The judge also pointed to workers stating difficulties that would arise from the 30-day timeline to return to the U.S., including that they had no home to return to in the U.S. after decades overseas and that they would be forced to pull children with special needs out of school in the middle of the school year.

Nichols ordered 500 USAID staffers who had already been placed on leave by the administration to be reinstated.

But the judge declined a request from two federal employee associations to grant a temporary block on an administration-imposed funding freeze that has shut down the agency and its work, pending more hearings on the workers’ lawsuit.

Nichols emphasized in the hearing earlier Friday that his order to pause the administration’s actions was not a decision on the employees’ request to block the administration’s efforts to quickly destroy the agency.

‘CLOSE IT DOWN,’ Trump said on Truth Social, referring to USAID, ahead of the judge’s ruling.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.