U.S.-funded aid programs worldwide have begun firing staff and preparing to shut down their operations as an unprecedented Trump administration freeze on foreign assistance brings their work to a sudden halt.

President Donald Trump’s 90-day pause on nearly all U.S. foreign aid, in an executive order signed during his first week in office, has ground to a halt a sprawling apparatus that stretches to nearly all corners of the world and that provides assistance ranging from weapons of war to vital medicines.