A judge has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump from placing 2,200 workers at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) on paid leave, hours before it was due to happen. Judge Carl Nichols issued a "limited" temporary restraining order, in response to a last-minute lawsuit filed by two unions trying to save the agency.

A second federal judge on Wednesday blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order that seeks to end birthright citizenship, saying it’s likely unconstitutional and “runs counter to our nation’s 250-year history of citizenship by birth.

This decision follows a lawsuit filed by the largest U.S. government workers' union and an association of foreign service workers.

The workers associations argue that Trump lacks the authority for his swift dismantling of a six-decade-old aid agency enshrined in congressional legislation.

Russia's Defence Ministry said on Friday that its forces had taken control of the strategic coal-mining city of Toretsk in eastern Ukraine, but Ukraine's military denied the city had been captured and reported heavy fighting in and around it.

The judge temporarily barred USAID from putting 2,200 workers on paid leave after employee groups filed a lawsuit challenging the administration’s authority to shut down the agency.