US to release over $1 billion after-school funding that it withheld, official says
Early in July, the Trump administration said it would not release funding previously appropriated by Congress for schools and that an initial review found signs that money had been misused to "subsidize a radical leftwing agenda."
States have said $6.8 billion in total was affected by the freeze.
This week, a coalition of mostly Democratic-led states filed a lawsuit challenging the move, and 10 Republican U.S. senators wrote a letter urging the Republican Trump administration to reverse its decision.
The money covered funding for education of migrant farm workers and their children; recruitment and training of teachers; English proficiency learning; academic enrichment and after-school and summer programs.
The senior administration official said the review had been completed for after-school and summer programs. "Funds will be released to the states," the official said.
"Guardrails have been put in place to ensure these funds are not used in violation of Executive Orders," the official added without elaborating.
The Trump administration has threatened schools and colleges with withholding federal funds over issues like climate initiatives, transgender policies, pro-Palestinian protests against U.S. ally Israel's war in Gaza and diversity, equity and inclusion practices.
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The Guardian
22 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Keir Starmer to recall cabinet for emergency meeting on Gaza crisis
Keir Starmer will recall his cabinet from their summer break for an emergency meeting on the Gaza crisis this week as cross-party MPs warned his talks with Donald Trump provided a critical juncture in helping to resolve the conflict. Amid growing international horror over the situation on the ground in Gaza, he will urge the US president to take a tougher stance towards Israel and will push for ceasefire talks to resume, when they meet in Scotland on Monday. David Lammy, the UK foreign secretary, is also preparing to attend a UN conference on a two-state solution in New York this week at which the pathway to formally recognising a Palestinian state will be under discussion. Government sources insisted that formal recognition of Palestinian statehood was a matter of 'when, not if', with the Labour government under intense domestic pressure to take further action as UK public opinion hardens. Downing Street sources said the government would set out its next steps to help resolve the situation in the Middle East in the coming days, but gave scant details, risking fuelling further criticism of Starmer over his response. Government sources insisted the prime minister was 'unequivocal' in his concern over the scenes in Gaza and was 'horrified' at images of starvation, desperation and suffering of children and babies, as he called his cabinet back to Westminster. During his talks with Trump at his Turnberry golf course in Ayrshire, Starmer is expected to press the US president to use his influence over the Israeli government to push for a resumption of peace talks between Israel and Hamas, after talks ground to a standstill. The deal under discussion was expected to include a 60-day ceasefire, with aid supplies ramped up as conditions for a lasting truce were brokered, but the US and Israel withdrew their negotiation teams from Qatar on Thursday. Starmer is also coming under growing domestic pressure, including from his own cabinet and a third of Labour MPs, to formally recognise a Palestinian state. The government has disappointed many on its own side by saying this would only happen as part of a negotiated peace deal. In contrast, Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday that France would formally recognise a Palestinian state at the UN general assembly in September. UK government aides suggested France's move would be purely symbolic without a path towards peace, which diplomats are expected to discuss next week at the UN. Starmer is also expected to discuss progress in implementing the economic deal the UK has signed with the US, which slashes some of Trump's tariffs on cars, aluminium and steel, and which the UK hopes will be the first step towards a closer trading relationship. After meeting European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday, Trump announced the US and the EU had struck a trade deal that would impose tariffs of 15% on most imports from the bloc, and will have a major impact on the UK economy. However, MPs from across the Commons underlined the urgency of Starmer's talks with the US president for the people of Gaza as they called on the prime minister to press Trump to take a more hardline stance towards Israel on aid and a ceasefire. Emily Thornberry, chair of the influential foreign affairs select committee, told the Guardian: 'Netanyahu only listens to Trump, and even then only sometimes. But somebody has to talk to the Israelis and nothing is going to move in this awful situation without him. 'Trump needs to hear that he has the strength of ten presidents, that only he can get a ceasefire. But it's high risk for Keir as it could anger him and it's not even clear whether it would work. But he has to try, this is the moment it has to be done. 'Trump also needs to hear that allies, including the UK, French and Saudis, are prepared to work together to put together peace proposals but they will only work if they result in two states: Israel and Palestine.' Conservative MP Kit Malthouse, a former cabinet minister, added: 'Every moment of inaction is a deliberate choice. These two leaders hold the power to end the starvation and killings in Gaza, to halt the violence in the West Bank, and to bring the hostages home with a permanent ceasefire. 'If they fail to act, history will not only remember the atrocities, it will remember that they had the means to stop them and chose not to.' Palestinians in Gaza have reacted with wariness after Israel began a limited, daily pause in fighting in three populated areas of Gaza to allow what Benjamin Netanyahu described as a 'minimal' amount of aid into the territory. Scores of Palestinians have died of starvation in recent weeks in a crisis attributed by humanitarian organisations and the UN to Israel's blockade of almost all aid into the territory. Israel also said it would establish humanitarian corridors to allow the UN to deliver food and medicine to Gaza, as well as turn on the power to a desalination plant to provide water. David Lammy welcomed the resumption of humanitarian corridors in the enclave but called for access to supplies to be 'urgently' widened over the coming hours and days, saying that military pauses promised by Israel would not alone be enough to ease suffering in Gaza. 'This announcement alone cannot alleviate the needs of those desperately suffering in Gaza,' the foreign secretary said. 'We need a ceasefire that can end the war, for hostages to be released and aid to enter Gaza by land unhindered. 'Whilst airdrops will help to alleviate the worst of the suffering, land routes serve as the only viable and sustainable means of providing aid into Gaza. These measures must be fully implemented and further barriers on aid removed. The world is watching.' Britain is working with Jordan to airdrop aid into Gaza and evacuate children needing medical assistance, with military planners deployed for further support. However, the head of the UN's Palestinian refugee agency has warned that such efforts are 'a distraction' that will fail to properly address deepening starvation in the strip, and could in some cases harm civilians.
Daily Mail
22 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Jay Leno blasts late-night comedy hosts
Jay Leno is taking aim at modern late-night comedy shows, claiming the hosts are isolating half their viewers in an interview released just days after Stephen Colbert got the boot from CBS. The former Tonight Show host, 75, reflected on the shift in late-night culture during a sit-down interview with Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation president David Trulio. The candid conversation was taped two weeks ago but was recently shared and quickly circulated online. They spoke openly about comedy, politics, and what's changed in the late-night world. Trulio began by mentioning to Leno that his jokes had a reputation of being equally balanced in his time on air. 'I read that there was an analysis done of your work on "The Tonight Show" for the 22 years and that your jokes were roughly equally balanced between going after Republicans and taking aim at Democrats. Did you have a strategy?' Trulio asked. 'I got hate letters saying, "You and your Republican friends," and another saying, "I hope you and your Democratic buddies are happy" – over the same joke,' Leno said. 'That's how you get a whole audience. Now you have to be content with half the audience, because you have to give your opinion.' 'Rodney Dangerfield and I were friends,' continued Leno. 'I knew Rodney 40 years and I have no idea if he was a Democrat or Republican. We never discussed politics, we just discussed jokes.' 'I like to think that people come to a comedy show to get away from the pressures of life. I love political humor – don't get me wrong. But people wind up cozying too much to one side or the other.' 'Funny is funny,' Leno said. 'It's funny when someone who's not... when you make fun of their side and they laugh at it, you know, that's kind of what I do.' 'I just find getting out – I don't think anybody wants to hear a lecture,' he continued. 'When I was with Rodney, it was always in the economy of words – get to the joke as quickly as possible.' He criticized comedians who inject their political opinions into every monologue and said he preferred making the whole audience laugh rather than pushing an agenda. 'I don't think anybody wants to hear a lecture … Why shoot for just half an audience? Why not try to get the whole? I like to bring people into the big picture,' he said. 'I don't understand why you would alienate one particular group, you know, or just don't do it at all. I'm not saying you have to throw your support or whatever, but just do what's funny.' His comments come in the wake of Colbert's dramatic departure from The Late Show. A media frenzy engulfed The Late Show after Colbert publicly slammed the CBS show's parent corporation, Paramount Global, for settling a defamation lawsuit with Trump for $16 million, calling it a 'big, fat, bribe,' in his opening monologue. Just days after the searing call-out, Colbert told his studio audience that the network was ending The Late Show in May 2026. Speculation has loomed over why the show was canceled, with A-listers and fellow talk-show hosts coming to the comedian's defense. Colbert won an Emmy for his work on The Colbert Report, a satirical show that ran on Comedy Central from 2005 to 2014. After he replaced David Letterman on The Late Show, the program was nominated for the most Outstanding Talk Series at the Emmys from 2017 to 2022. Meanwhile, other late-night legends have rallied behind Colbert in the wake of his show's cancellation. Jimmy Fallon said: 'I don't like it. I don't like what's going on one bit. These are crazy times,' Fallon said, referencing how 'everybody [was] talking about' the decision. 'And many people are now threatening to boycott the network', he said, setting up another punchline. 'Yeah – CBS could lose millions of viewers, plus tens of hundreds watching on Paramount+.' David Letterman also backed his successor and suggested CBS canceled The Late Show because he was 'always shooting his mouth off' about Donald Trump. The 78-year-old late-night legend created The Late Show in 1993 after NBC denied him the chance to succeed Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. In his first comment on the show's cancellation, Letterman noted that his show was more about political satire than his version of The Late Show but was still complimentary, calling the decision by CBS 'pure cowardice.' 'I think one day, if not today, the people at CBS who have manipulated and handled this, they're going to be embarrassed, because this is gutless,' he told former Late Show producers Barbara Gaines and Mary Barclay.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Lauren Boebert's son charged with child abuse in incident she described as a ‘miscommunication'
Rep. Lauren Boebert's son has been charged with child abuse following an incident involving her grandson that she described as a 'miscommunication.' Tyler Boebert, 20, the eldest son of the MAGA congresswoman, was cited for criminal negligence where no death or injury occurred, which is a misdemeanor, for the July 11 incident, according to Windsor Police Department records obtained by Denver Westword. Authorities have not yet shared details about the incident, which the 38-year-old congresswoman brushed off as 'a miscommunication on monitoring my young grandson that recently led to him getting out of the house.' In a statement, the congresswoman described her son's legal trouble as a 'one-time incident,' noting there was 'no injury or physical abuse involved.' Child Protective Services met with the family, the congresswoman added. Despite this, it's not the first run-in with the law for the congresswoman's 20-year-old son, whose girlfriend became pregnant with his child when he was just 17. In September of 2022, Tyler Boebert flipped his father's SUV into a creek, leaving the person in his passenger seat with multiple concussions and a severely lacerated hand. He was ticketed for careless driving. The case was eventually dropped down to a 'defective vehicle for headlights' ticket under a plea deal. Then, in January 2024, he called the police to report that his father, Jayson, was assaulting him, leading to his arrest. During the incident, the father 'pushed Tyler to the ground and pushed his thumb into his mouth,' according to the arrest affidavit. A month later, Tyler was slapped with more than a dozen felony charges for a series of thefts from vehicles – and for using stolen credit cards at local gas stations. Tyler Boebert pleaded guilty last October to a single charge of attempting to commit identity theft and was given a two-year deferred judgment, allowing his felony to be cleared from his record after completing his 24-month probation term. He was required to complete 80 hours of community service and was banned from using controlled substances. It was not immediately clear whether the most recent citation would be a breach of his probation. He is due in Weld County Court on September 8.
