Trump wants to kill $52.7 billion semiconductor chips subsidy law
WASHINGTON, March 4 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said Tuesday U.S. lawmakers should get rid of a landmark 2022 bipartisan law to give $52.7 billion in subsidies for semiconductor chips manufacturing and production and use the proceeds to pay debt.
"The CHIPS act is a horrible, horrible thing. We give hundreds of billions of dollars and it doesn't mean a thing. They take our money and they don't spend it," Trump said in a speech to Congress. "You should get rid of the CHIPS Act and whatever is left over, Mr. Speaker, you should use it to reduce debt."
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Scottish Sun
27 minutes ago
- Scottish Sun
Russia using horror AI kamikaze drone that ‘chooses its own target' as Ukraine now faces blitz of over ‘500 every night'
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) VLADIMIR Putin has begun deploying kamikaze drones that select their own targets using AI in a fresh assault on Ukraine. The country now faces over 500 attacks every night, just days after Kharkiv was rocked overnight by a downpour of missiles. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 5 Fire and smoke rise in Ukraine following a Russian drone and missile strike Credit: Reuters 5 Kyiv is seen engulfed in flames following a Russian drone attack Credit: Reuters 5 Reports said the UAV-V2U is being used to close in on the northeastern city of Sumy, while Putin ramps up drone production and builds new launch sites. Some 70 units a day are now being made compared to just 21 last year, according to Ukraine's military intelligence. This is largely thanks to help from China, the agency has said, as the UAV is "mostly assembled from Chinese-manufactured components." Beijing has repeatedly denied supplying drones or weapon components to Russia, whilst Trump and Biden have both hit China with sanctions to stop it getting access to computer chips. Marking a new escalation in the war, the drones use camera images to navigate and AI to independently locate targets. The Defence Intelligence of Ukraine said: "The key feature of the drone is its ability to autonomously search for and select targets using artificial intelligence. "Its computing system is based on the Chinese Leetop A203 minicomputer, with a high-speed processor assembly built on the NVIDIA Jetson Orin module." This comes just hours after drones and missiles were launched at Kyiv as Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bombers were reportedly unleashed to rain hell on the infamous Snake Island in the Black Sea. Moscow launched a massive strike on Rivne using its Tu-22M3 and Tu-95MS strategic bombers to hit Dubny airbase. Squadrons of these fighter jets were targeted and destroyed last week in Kyiv's daring Operation Spiderweb. Russia bombs Kyiv killing 4 in blitz as Putin plots revenge for Op Spiderweb Another key Ukrainian military airport - Hostomel - was also attacked as Putin sought revenge for the humiliating attack. Polish armed forces command said Nato fighter jets were patrolling due to 'intensive air attack by the Russian Federation on Ukrainian territory'. Just days ago, Kharkiv was rocked overnight as 48 kamikaze drones, along with missiles and guided bombs, slammed into residential areas, according to the city's mayor. 'We have a lot of damage,' Ihor Terekhov said. More than 50 explosions rocked Kharkiv, with the mayor adding it was 'the most powerful attack' on the city of the 39-month war. In the latest terror strikes on civilians, 18 multi-story buildings and 13 private houses were hit and damaged. In Kyiv, a dramatic tower block video filmed by a resident showed the terror of another Putin strike on civilians as flames from the exploding drone shot some 80ft up the building. Three were killed and at least 21 wounded, including a six-weeks-old baby, and a 14-year-old girl. A woman, 26, trapped under a slab of concrete was eventually freed three hours after the strike, and was seen being stretchered to an ambulance. Ukraine's foreign minister Andrii Sybiha described how hundreds of drones and missiles "rained down" on his country overnight. He wrote in a social media post: "Kharkiv had a particularly terrible night. "People were injured and killed, and the energy infrastructure was also damaged." Sybiha added there were further strikes in the Donetsk, Dnipro, Ternopil and Odesa regions. 5 The Kursk region after being struck by a Russian drone attack Credit: Reuters
The Independent
31 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump wants to shrink the cap on Pell Grants. It could have a major impact on paying for college
Donald Trump is asking Congress to slash federal financial aid for low-income students as he works to offset the expected multi-trillion-dollar cost of his flagship tax cuts. In its annual budget request for 2026, the Department of Education proposed reducing the maximum payout of Pell Grants by 22 percent, from $7,395 to $5,710. Meanwhile, more stringent college credit requirements proposed in Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill' would reportedly affect more than half of all Pell Grant recipients and deny access completely for around 10 percent. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the Bill in its current form would add roughly $2.4tn to the U.S. government deficit between now and 2036 — largely due to extending Trump's 2017 tax cuts, which were skewed towards the richest Americans. The White House has pushed back on that figure, claiming that merely renewing previous tax cuts should not be counted as an extra hit to the deficit. Who receives Pell Grants? A Pell Grant is a permanent financial award for first-time undergraduate students with few monetary resources, established in 1965 by the Higher Education Act. Unlike student loans, they never need to be repaid. While Pell Grants by themselves rarely pay for a full undergraduate degree, they can be supplemented by other programs and form a key part of low-income students' overall aid package. Nearly 40 percent of undergraduate students received Pell Grants in the 2019-20 academic year, according to the Department of Education. Of those recipients, at least 20 percent are estimated to attend community college. Who would Trump's cuts affect? Technically, the DoE's new budget request merely keeps Pell Grant funding at the same level as it was in 2024 and 2025. But because the number of people seeking grants has risen since then, that would mean cutting the maximum award to $5,710. Mark Kantrowitz, an independent higher education expert, told CNBC the change would add about $6,500 on average to the debt burden of Pell Grant recipients who earn bachelor's degrees. The DoE is also proposing to cut its federal work-study program, which helps eligible low-income students keep and maintain part-time jobs by subsidizing their wages. Instead of covering up to 75 percent, the government would now pay only 25 percent. Separate provisions in the so-called 'Big Beautiful Bill' would reportedly increase the number of course credits required to get the maximum Pell Grant from 12 per semester to 15 for part time students and from 24 to 30 for full time students, as well as cutting off less than half-time students completely. According to the Budget Office, that would reduce grants for more than half of Pell recipients and render about 10 percent of current recipients entirely ineligible. Unlike Trump's budget request, the Bill also proposes additional funding for Pell Grants overall, so it's not clear how these two sets of provisions would combine.
NBC News
35 minutes ago
- NBC News
Judge blocks administration from enforcing anti-diversity and anti-transgender executive orders
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California has blocked the Trump administration from enforcing anti-diversity and anti-transgender executive orders in grant funding requirements that LGBTQ+ organizations say are unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar said Monday that the federal government cannot force recipients to halt programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion or acknowledge the existence of transgender people in order to receive grant funding. The order will remain in effect while the legal case continues, although government lawyers will likely appeal. The funding provisions "reflect an effort to censor constitutionally protected speech and services promoting DEI and recognizing the existence of transgender individuals," Tigar wrote. He went on to say that the executive branch must still be bound by the Constitution in shaping its agenda and that even in the context of federal subsidies, "it cannot weaponize Congressionally appropriated funds to single out protected communities for disfavored treatment or suppress ideas that it does not like or has deemed dangerous." The plaintiffs include health centers, LGBTQ+ services groups and the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Historical Society. All receive federal funding and say they cannot complete their missions by following the president's executive orders. The San Francisco AIDS Foundation, one of the plaintiffs, said in 2023 it received a five-year grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to expand and enhance sexual health services, including the prevention of sexually transmitted infections. The $1.3 million project specifically targets communities disproportionately affected by sexual health disparities. But in April, the CDC informed the nonprofit that it must "immediately terminate all programs, personnel, activities, or contracts" that promote DEI or gender ideology. President Donald Trump has signed a flurry of executive orders since taking office in January, including ones to roll back transgender protections and stop DEI programs. Lawyers for the government say that the president is permitted to "align government funding and enforcement strategies" with his policies. Plaintiffs say that Congress — and not the president — has the power to condition how federal funds are used, and that the executive orders restrict free speech rights.
