Judge blocks Trump from placing 2,200 US aid agency workers on paid leave

Flowers and a sign are placed outside the headquarters of the US Agency for International Development, or USAID (Jose Luis Magana/AP)

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from placing 2,200 employees of the US Agency for International Development on paid leave.

District Judge Carl Nichols, who was nominated by President Donald Trump, sided with two federal employee associations in agreeing to a pause in plans to put the workers on paid leave as of midnight on Friday.