Frozen funding fight: 24 states sue Trump admin over blocked after-school and summer program support
The states involved span across the country and include both Democratic and some swing states, reflecting a broad concern over the impact of the cuts on children's education and community services.
State attorneys general claim the funding freeze violates federal law and threatens essential programs that help close educational gaps and provide safe environments for students outside regular school hours.
The Department of Education under Trump has not commented on the ongoing legal action.
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MTV Lebanon
an hour ago
- MTV Lebanon
Putin, Unfazed by Trump, Will Fight On and Could Take More of Ukraine
President Vladimir Putin intends to keep fighting in Ukraine until the West engages on his terms for peace, unfazed by Donald Trump's threats of tougher sanctions, and his territorial demands may widen as Russian forces advance, three sources close to the Kremlin said. Putin, who ordered Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in country's east between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops, believes Russia's economy and its military are strong enough to weather any additional Western measures, the sources said. Trump on Monday expressed frustration with Putin's refusal to agree a ceasefire and announced a wave of weapons supplies to Ukraine, including Patriot surface-to-air missile systems. He also threatened further sanctions on Russia unless a peace deal was reached within 50 days. The three Russian sources, familiar with top-level Kremlin thinking, said Putin will not stop the war under pressure from the West and believes Russia - which has survived the toughest sanctions imposed by the West- can endure further economic hardship, including threatened U.S. tariffs targeting buyers of Russian oil. "Putin thinks no one has seriously engaged with him on the details of peace in Ukraine - including the Americans - so he will continue until he gets what he wants," one of the sources told Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation. Despite several telephone calls between Trump and Putin, and visits to Russia by U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, the Russian leader believes there have not been detailed discussions of the basis for a peace plan, the source said. "Putin values the relationship with Trump and had good discussions with Witkoff, but the interests of Russia come above all else," the person added. The White House did not respond to a request for comment for this story. Putin's conditions for peace include a legally binding pledge that NATO will not expand eastwards, Ukrainian neutrality and limits on its armed forces, protection for Russian speakers who live there, and acceptance of Russia's territorial gains, the sources said. He is also willing to discuss a security guarantee for Ukraine involving major powers, though it is far from clear how this would work, the sources said. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukraine will never recognise Russia's sovereignty over its conquered regions and that Kyiv retains the sovereign right to decide whether it wants to join NATO. His office did not respond to a request for comment for this story. However, a second source familiar with Kremlin thinking said that Putin considered Moscow's goals far more important than any potential economic losses from Western pressure, and he was not concerned by U.S. threats to impose tariffs on China and India for buying Russian oil. Two of the sources said that Russia has the upper hand on the battlefield and its economy, geared towards war, is exceeding the production of the U.S.-led NATO alliance in key munitions, like artillery shells. Russia, which already controls nearly one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, has advanced some 1,415 square km (546 square miles) in the past three months, according to data from the DeepStateMap, an open-source intelligence map of the conflict. "Appetite comes with eating", the first source said, meaning that Putin could seek more territory unless the war was stopped. The two other sources independently confirmed the same. Russia currently controls Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, plus all of the eastern region of Luhansk, more than 70% of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and fragments of Kharkiv, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Putin's public position is that those first five regions – Crimea and the four regions of eastern Ukraine - are now part of Russia and Kyiv must withdraw before there can be peace. Putin could fight on until Ukraine's defences collapse and widen his territorial ambitions to include more of Ukraine, the sources said. "Russia will act based on Ukraine's weakness," the third source said, adding that Moscow might halt its offensive after conquering the four eastern regions of Ukraine if it encounters stiff resistance. "But if it falls, there will be an even greater conquest of Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy and Kharkiv." Zelenskiy has said Russia's summer offensive is not going as successfully as Moscow had hoped. His top brass, who acknowledge that Russian forces outnumber Ukraine's, say Kyiv's troops are holding the line and forcing Russia to pay a heavy price for its gains.
Nahar Net
2 hours ago
- Nahar Net
Russia suggests Trump is emboldening Ukraine, delaying peace
The Kremlin warned Tuesday that US President Donald Trump's pledge of more weapons for Kyiv and threat of sanctions targeting Russian trading partners could embolden Ukraine and further delay already stalled peace efforts. Trump a day earlier gave Russia 50 days to strike a peace deal with Ukraine, voicing fresh frustration with Moscow as he laid out an arrangement with NATO to supply Kyiv with new military aid sponsored by the alliance's members. The Republican forced Moscow and Kyiv to open peace talks to end the conflict, now in its fourth year, but Russia has rejected calls for a ceasefire and launched a record number of drones and missiles at Ukraine in recent months. Moscow said it needed more time to respond fully to Trump's statement, but hinted it did not appear conducive to successful negotiations. "It seems that such a decision made in Washington and in NATO countries and directly in Brussels will be perceived by Kyiv not as a signal for peace but for the continuation of the war," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "President Trump's statement is very serious. We certainly need time to analyze what was said in Washington," he told reporters in Moscow's first reaction to the comments. Trump warned that if no deal was concluded, he would slap severe tariffs on Russia's remaining trade partners in a bid to impede Moscow's ability to finance its military offensive. Pumped up by huge state spending on soldiers and weapons, as well as by redirecting vital energy exports to the likes of China and India, Russia's economy has so far defied Western hopes sanctions would push it into a deep recession. - Weapons deal - Two rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine, held in Turkey in recent months, have made no progress towards ending the fighting and yielded only large-scale prisoner exchanges. Tens of thousands have been killed since Russia launched its offensive, with millions forced to flee their homes in eastern and southern Ukraine, which has been decimated by aerial attacks and ground assaults. Putin has repeatedly rejected calls for a ceasefire and his negotiators have demanded Ukraine shun all Western military support, and pull out of four regions in its east and south that Moscow claims to have annexed. Kyiv and the West have rejected them as a call for Ukraine's de-facto capitulation. Peskov said Russia was open to another round of talks and was "waiting for proposals from the Ukrainian side on the timing." Kyiv has called it "pointless" to hold further talks with the current Russian delegation. Denmark and the Netherlands on Tuesday said they were looking to participate in Trump's plan for Europe to buy American weapons for Ukraine. Under the scheme, some of NATO's European members would pay Washington for the weapons, including vital Patriot air defense systems, which would then be shipped to Ukraine. The United States has been Kyiv's most important military backer since Russia launched its offensive in 2022, but Trump's erratic policy on whether to support Ukraine and his attempts to engage Putin have spooked Europe and Kyiv. - 'Game of chess' - In Moscow, residents dismissed Trump's statement as little more than politics. "It's a game of chess," Svetlana, an aviation engineer said. "There will still be negotiations... (Trump) gave 50 days, and then there will be more... We are waiting for the next move of our president," the 47-year-old said. Russia has pummeled Ukrainian cities with regular aerial attacks in recent weeks as its troops advance slowly across the battlefield in the east and south. Ukrainian soldiers fighting in the east were hopeful but cautious following Trump's promise of air defenses and weapons. "I don't believe him. There have been too many promises that haven't been kept," said one soldier with the call-sign "Shah." Others were worried it might be too little too late. "Of course it's good, but at the same time, time has been lost. Those Patriots could have been sent sooner and could have helped a lot," another fighter called "Master" told AFP. "If there is even the slightest chance to improve the situation for us and worsen it for them, then that's already positive," Ruslan, a 29-year-old soldier, said.
MTV Lebanon
6 hours ago
- MTV Lebanon
15 Jul 2025 13:26 PM Trump asked Zelenskiy if Ukraine could hit Moscow
U.S. President Donald Trump has privately encouraged Ukraine to step up strikes deep in Russian territory, even asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy whether he could hit Moscow if the U.S. provided long-range weapons, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday. The newspaper, citing two people familiar with the conversation, said Trump spoke to his Ukrainian counterpart in a call on July 4, a day after speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump also discussed sending Ukraine U.S.-made ATACMS missiles, the FT reported, citing the same sources. The White House did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Reuters could not verify the report. Trump at the time said he had been disappointed by the call with Putin because it does not appear the Russian leader was looking to stop Russia's war against Ukraine.
