The Trump administration is placing US Agency for International Development direct-hire staffers around the world on leave, except those deemed essential. A notice posted online Tuesday gives the workers 30 days to return home and targets the aid agency's six-decade mission overseas. Thousands of USAID employees already had been laid off and programs worldwide shut down after President Donald Trump imposed a sweeping freeze on foreign assistance after taking office. Elon Musk's budget-slashing Department of Government Efficiency had taken USAID's website offline over the weekend as it steadily dismantled the agency, which has been a special target of Musk, Trump and Republicans in the first two-and-a-half weeks of Trump's second term. The website came back online Tuesday night, with the notice of recall or termination for global staffers its sole post. The move had been rumoured for several days and was the most extreme of several proposals considered for consolidating the agency i