A judge has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump from placing 2,200 workers at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) on paid leave, hours before it was due to happen.

Judge Carl Nichols issued a “limited” temporary restraining order, in response to a last-minute lawsuit filed by two unions trying to save the agency.

The order will remain in place for a week, until 14 February at midnight.

Trump has argued that USAID, the overseas aid agency, is not a valuable use of taxpayer money and wants to dismantle it – he plans to put nearly all of the agency’s 10,000 employees on leave, except 611 workers.