Good evening, I'm Amna Nawaz.

And I'm Jeff Bennett on the news hour tonight.

The White House defends the legality of a sweeping freeze of federal spending after a judge orders a pause on the action.

Global experts sound the alarm about how U.S. spending cuts could impact health around the world.

It's a big deal, and this will not be easy to recover from.

With real harms, we are already safe.

And President Trump orders the Pentagon to abolish diversity and inclusion programs in the military.

The United States. and inclusion programs in the military. Welcome to the News Hour.

President Trump's efforts to put the breaks on government spending

that was already approved by Congress

and signed into law have hit a stumbling block.

Late this afternoon, a federal judge ordered a temporary halt on a sweeping White House plan

to pause funding for all federal grants and loans. The funding freeze was laid out in a memo

from the Office of Management and Budget late yesterday

and was set to take effect today.

As Laura Barone Lopez reports, that led to a flurry of confusion and clarifications.

Good afternoon, everybody.

At the first White House briefing of the second Trump administration, Press Secretary

Caroline Levitt addressed an unprecedented order by the White House to freeze

all federal financial assistance.

It is the responsibility of this president and this administration to be good stewards of

taxpayer dollars.

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