The People’s Liberation Army Navy Z-9 utility helicopter that intercepted the Philippine Cessna. Photo Courtesy of Camille Elemia.
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A People’s Liberation Army Navy Z-9 utility helicopter intercepted the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Cessna 208B Grand Caravan during a routine patrol mission over Scarborough Shoal today at 8:39 a.m. local time, according to Philippine officials. A number of Philippine journalists [embedded journalists] were on board the Cessna during the encounter, which saw the Chinese helicopter fly as close as three meters from the turboprop aircraft. Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela described China’s actions as “dangerous flight maneuvers” and blasted the conduct as a disregard to international aviation regulations.
President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order to expand school choice across the country. While this policy could allow more students access to alternatives outside of public schooling, critics warn it might divert essential funding from public schools and exacerbate educational inequalities.
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which provides a comprehensive measure of students’ academic achievement across the country, overall student achievement has not returned to pre-pandemic levels. The percentage of eighth-graders reading below NAEP Basic is the highest in the assessment’s history, and the percentage of fourth-graders scoring below NAEP Basic is the largest in 20 years.
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Recent audits revealed that private school parents, and now voucher recipients, have used the funds for a slew of, at best, questionable expenses, including kayak lessons, horseback riding lessons, home gyms, televisions, and more. Earlier audits conducted prior to the most recent expansion revealed similarly questionable uses.”
Donald Trump rammed through new Title IX rules for federally funded K-12 schools and colleges Friday—dramatically changing how they deal with sex assault claims and LGBT students.
President Donald Trump’s executive order on antisemitism encourages the attorney general to use a federal law created to target the Klu Klux Klan, and will direct federal agencies to tell colleges and universities to “monitor” and “report activities” by foreign students, staff and faculty for activities related to terrorism, according to a draft of the order obtained by the Forward.
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In addition, it says that the attorney general is “encouraged” to use the federal “conspiracy against rights” law “to combat antisemitism.” The measure was originally passed to combat KKK violence in the aftermath of the Civil War, and has since been used to prosecute civil rights violations related to elections. Trump himself was charged with violating the law in relation to his alleged attempt to subvert the results of the 2020 election.
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The Anti-Defamation League has called for more aggressive action against students protesting Israel, including asking school presidents to investigate Students for Justice in Palestinechapters for providing material support to terrorist organizations. The Secure Community Network — the main organization providing security advice to synagogues and Jewish organizations in the United States — recently called for the country to “expel any non-citizen alien who supports terrorism,” including protesters.
Republicans have focused almost all of their attention on what they believe is antisemitism coming from left-wing activists and critics of Israel. The Heritage Foundation released a blueprint for the Trump administration to fight antisemitism called Project Esther that discussed how to dismantle a “Hamas Support Network” composed of progressive advocacy groups and foundations, while the author of that report said that he was not concerned with addressing the threat posed by white supremacists.
The American Foreign Service Association, established in 1924, is both professional association and exclusive representative for the U.S. Foreign Service. AFSA’s close to 16,800 members include active-duty and retired members of the Foreign Service at the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Foreign Commercial Service, Foreign Agricultural Service, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and U.S. Agency for Global Media.
President-elect Donald J. Trump on Tuesday tapped Linda McMahon, a former professional wrestling executive who ran the Small Business Administration for much of his first term, to lead the Education Department, an agency he has routinely singled out for elimination in his upcoming term.
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In part because of her recent policy role and her experience as the small business administrator, Ms. McMahon had been discussed as a possible pick to lead the Commerce Department until the role was officially offered to Howard Lutnick, a Wall Street executive and a chairman of the Trump transition team, earlier in the day.
Ms. McMahon will be in charge of overseeing what is widely expected to be a thorough and determined dismantling of the department’s core functions, as Mr. Trump and many of those in his orbit have questioned the agency’s purpose and disparaged its work as overregulating schools on political and ideological terms.
Other than a brief appointment in 2009 to the Connecticut State Board of Education, where she served for just over a year, Ms. McMahon has no experience in overseeing education policy. She would assume the role at a time when school districts across the country are facing budget shortfalls, many students are not making up ground lost during the pandemic in reading and math, and many colleges and universities are shrinking and closing amid a larger loss of faith in the value of higher education.
But the America First Policy Institute has set out a more immediate list of changes it says could be achieved through vastly changing the department’s priorities. Those include stopping schools from “promoting inaccurate and unpatriotic concepts” about American history surrounding institutionalized racism, and expanding “school choice” programs that direct more public funds to parents to spend on home-schooling, online classes or at private and religious schools.
Leaders of three large public school systems told a congressional panel Wednesday that they’re fighting antisemitism with education and, when necessary, discipline, rejecting accusations that they have allowed hate to go unchecked.
When Vice President Kamala Harris toured the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School this week, site of the infamous 2018 Parkland, Florida, mass shooting, she pushed for more gun control and called for communities to accept more federal help in stopping school shootings. “I will continue to advocate for what we must do in terms of universal background checks and assault weapons ban” Harris said.
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