Donald Trump’s spending freeze blocked by US judge

US Judge Loren AliKhan temporarily halted President Donald Trump's order to freeze hundreds of billions of dollars in federal grants and loans, just minutes before it was set to come into effect on Tuesday.

The judge’s order was in response to a lawsuit filed by a group of organisations representing grant recipients, which claims the White House's temporary freezing of already approved funding violates the law.

The acting head of the White House budget office had instructed agencies to "temporarily pause all activities related to obligations or disbursement of all federal financial assistance".

But the White House directive could have impacted billions of dollars meant for federal programmes, from disaster relief to cancer research.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt had said the pause in funding would allow governments to cut back spending for "woke" gender issues and diversity programmes.