The Trump administration said on Sunday (local time) that it was placing all but a fraction of staffers at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) on leave worldwide and eliminating at least 1600 US-based jobs.

The move was the latest and one of the biggest steps yet toward what President Donald Trump and cost-cutting ally Elon Musk say is their goal of gutting the six-decade-old aid and development agency in a broader campaign to slash the size of the federal government.