The US Supreme Court denied the administration’s request to block payments for the work that foreign organizations have already completed. The dispute is due to continue in lower courts. DW has more.

US Supreme Court rejects Trump bid to withold $2 billion in foreign aid Greenland’s prime minister to Trump: ‘We are not for sale’

This blog on the developments from Donald Trump’s first weeks in office on Thursday, February 13, 2025

Supreme Court upholds order to release $2 billion in foreign aid payments

The US Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s administration cannot stop payments to foreign aid organizations for work they have already completed for the government.

The court supported US District Judge Amir Ali’s decision, which ordered the Trump administration to quickly release funding to contractors and grant recipients from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department for their past work.

Ali had ordered the US State Department and USAID to pay nearly $2 billion to contractors by midnight on Wednesday last week.

The Trump administration turned to the Supreme Court as the deadline approached. They argued that handling claims properly in such a short time was impossible.

By a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court told Ali to “clarify what obligations the government must fulfill to ensure compliance with the temporary restraining order, with due regard for the feasibility of any compliance timelines.”

The court’s decision, however, keeps Ali’s temporary restraining order in place, which stopped the spending freeze.

Panama president denounces Trump’s Canal claims

Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino said Wednesday President Donald Trump was lying when he claimed that the United States was “reclaiming” the Panama Canal.

In his first speech to Congress after becoming president again, Trump welcomed a deal by a group led by giant asset manager BlackRock to acquire two Panama Canal ports

He described this deal as an early step in his administration’s plan to “reclaim” the important waterway.

President Mulino, however accused Trump of “once again lying” in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“The Panama Canal is not in the process of being reclaimed … the Canal is Panamanian and will continue to be Panamanian!”

Panama, took over control of the crucial international waterway in 1999 under a treaty negotiated with the United States 20 years earlier.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to “take back” control of the Panama Canal.

A consortium led by US firm BlackRock has agreed to purchase the ports of Balboa and Cristobal on either end of the canal from a Hong Kong-based company CK Hutchison. The canal is home to several other ports.

Greenland’s prime minister rejects Trump’s acquisition plans

Greenland’s prime minister said, “Greenland is ours” and cannot be taken or sold.

This was in response to President Donald Trump, who told Congress the United States would acquire the territory “one way or another.”

“Kalaallit Nunaat is ours,” Prime Minister Múte Bourup Egede wrote, using Greenlandic for the “Land of the People” or the “Land of the Greenlanders.”

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, in an interview with broadcaster TV2, echoed Egede in repeating that Greenland is not for sale.

Located in the Arctic Circle, Greenland sits between Canada and northern Europe.

Although an autonomous territory, it is still ruled by the Danish crown. Any American effort to acquire Greenland would therefore have to include Denmark.