Trump signs order aimed at dismantling US Department of Education

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Updated 21 March 2025
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Trump signs order aimed at dismantling US Department of Education

  • The order is designed to leave school policy almost entirely in the hands of states and local boards
  • The department oversees some 100,000 public and 34,000 private schools in the United States
  • Democrats acknowledged on Thursday that Trump could effectively gut the department without congressional action

WASHINGTON: Flanked by students and educators, US President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order intended to essentially dismantle the federal Department of Education, making good on a longstanding campaign promise to conservatives.
The order is designed to leave school policy almost entirely in the hands of states and local boards, a prospect that alarms liberal education advocates.
Thursday’s order was a first step “to eliminate” the department, Trump said at a signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House. Shuttering the agency completely requires an act of Congress, and Trump lacks the votes for that.
“We’re going to be returning education, very simply, back to the states where it belongs,” said Trump in front of a colorful backdrop of state flags.
Young students invited to the event sat at classroom desks encircling the president and signed their own mock executive orders alongside him.
The signing followed the department’s announcement last week that it would lay off nearly half of its staff, in step with Trump’s sweeping efforts to reduce the size of a federal government he considers to be bloated and inefficient.
Education has long been a political lightning rod in the United States. Conservatives favor local control over education policy and school-choice options that help private and religious schools, and left-leaning voters largely support robust funding for public schools and diversity programs.

 

But Trump has elevated the fight to a different level, making it part of a generalized push against what conservatives view as liberal indoctrination in America’s schools from the university level down to K-12 instruction.
He has sought to re-engineer higher education in the United States by reducing funding and pushing to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion policies at colleges and universities, just as he has in the federal government.
Columbia University, for example, faced a Thursday deadline to respond to demands to tighten restrictions on campus protests as preconditions for opening talks on restoring $400 million in suspended federal funding.
The White House also argues the Education Department is a waste of money, citing mediocre test scores, disappointing literacy rates and lax math skills among students as proof that the return on the agency’s trillions of dollars in investment was poor.
Local battles over K-12 curricula accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic, which saw parents angrily confront officials at school board meetings nationwide. It was a discontent that Trump, other Republican candidates and conservative advocacy groups such as Moms for Liberty tapped into.
Trump was joined at the ceremony by Republican governors such as Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida.
Democrats acknowledged on Thursday that Trump could effectively gut the department without congressional action.
“Donald Trump knows perfectly well he can’t abolish the Department of Education without Congress — but he understands that if you fire all the staff and smash it to pieces, you might get a similar, devastating result,” US Senator Patty Murray said in a statement.

Seeking closure
Trump suggested on Thursday that he will still seek to close down the department entirely, and that he wants Education Secretary Linda McMahon, who attended the White House event, to put herself out of a job.
The department oversees some 100,000 public and 34,000 private schools in the United States, although more than 85 percent of public school funding comes from state and local governments. It provides federal grants for needy schools and programs, including money to pay teachers of children with special needs, fund arts programs and replace outdated infrastructure.
It also oversees the $1.6 trillion in student loans held by tens of millions of Americans who cannot afford to pay for college outright.
For now, Trump’s executive order aims to whittle the department down to basic functions such as administering student loans, Pell Grants that help low-income students attend college and resources for children with special needs.
“We’re going to shut it down and shut it down as quickly as possible,” Trump said. “It’s doing us no good.”
Though Republicans control both chambers of Congress, Democratic support would be required to achieve the needed 60 votes in the Senate for such a bill to pass. At the event, Trump said the matter may ultimately land before Congress in a vote to do away with the department entirely.
Trump has acknowledged that he would need buy-in from Democratic lawmakers and teachers’ unions to fulfill his campaign pledge of fully closing the department. He likely will never get it.
“See you in court,” the head of the American Federation of Teachers union, Randi Weingarten, said in a statement.
A majority of the American public do not support closing the department.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll found last month that respondents opposed shuttering the Department of Education by roughly two to one — 65 percent to 30 percent. The Reuters/Ipsos poll, which was conducted online and nationwide, surveyed 4,145 US adults and its results had a margin of error of about 2 percentage points.
Federal aid tends to flow more to Republican-leaning states than Democratic ones. It accounted for 15 percent of all K-12 revenue in states that voted for Trump in the 2024 election, compared with 11 percent of revenue in states that voted for his Democratic rival Kamala Harris, according to a Reuters analysis of Census Bureau data.
Two programs administered by the Department of Education — aid for low-income schools and students with special needs — are the largest of those federal aid programs.


Chad hopes ‘green charcoal’ can save vanishing forests

Updated 3 sec ago
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Chad hopes ‘green charcoal’ can save vanishing forests

N’DJAMENA: As they zigzagged from one machine to another in the searing African sun, the workers were covered in black soot.
But the charcoal they were making is known as “green,” and backers hope it can save impoverished Chad from rampant deforestation.
Chad, a vast, landlocked country of 19 million people perched at the crossroads of north and central Africa, is steadily turning to desert.
It has lost more than 90 percent of its forest cover since the 1970s, hit by climate change and overexploitation of trees for household uses such as cooking, officials say.
“Green charcoal” aims to protect what forest is left.
Made from discarded plant waste such as millet and sesame stalks or palm fronds, it is meant to save trees from being chopped down for cooking.
The product “releases less emissions than traditional charcoal, it doesn’t blacken your pots, it has high energy content and lasts up to three times longer than ordinary charcoal,” said Ousmane Alhadj Oumarou, technical director of the Raikina Association for Socioeconomic Development (Adser).
“Using one kilogramme of green charcoal saves six kilogrammes of wood.”
The group has installed a production facility in Pont Belile, just north of the capital, N’Djamena.
There, workers grind up burnt plant waste, then mix it with gum arabic, which helps it ignite, and clay, which makes it burn more slowly.
The resulting black nuggets look like ordinary charcoal.
Like the traditional kind, it emits CO2 when it burns — but less, said Souleymane Adam Adey, an ecologist at the University of N’Djamena.
And “it contributes to fighting deforestation, by ensuring the trees that aren’t cut down continue to capture and store carbon,” he said.


The conflict in neighboring Sudan, which is facing one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, is adding to pressure on Chad, which has become home to more than 800,000 Sudanese refugees since 2023 — double the 400,000 it already hosted.
“Desertification has progressed in the regions that have been hosting Sudanese refugees for the past two years,” said Adser’s director, 45-year-old businessman Ismael Hamid.
Adser invested 200 million CFA francs (about $350,000) to launch the project, then won backing from the World Bank, which buys the charcoal for 750 CFA francs per kilogramme.
The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, distributes the charcoal in refugee camps in eastern Chad.
But Hamid said he hoped to expand production and slash prices to 350 to 500 CFA francs per kilo to make “green charcoal” available and affordable nationwide.
The plant currently produces seven to nine tons per day.
“If we want to meet the country’s needs, we have to increase our output by at least a factor of 10,” said Hamid, calling for subsidies to support the budding sector.
Environment Minister Hassan Bakhit Djamous told AFP the government was working on a policy to promote such projects.
“We need to bet on green charcoal as an energy source for the future of our country,” he said.
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Philippine Navy seizes $175 million meth haul at sea

Updated 23 min 38 sec ago
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Philippine Navy seizes $175 million meth haul at sea

  • A pair of naval gunboats intercepted a fishing vessel carrying 1.5 tonnes of methamphetamine hydrochloride off the coast of main island Luzon just before dawn

MANILA: The Philippine Navy seized an illegal drug shipment worth $175 million (10 billion pesos) on Friday in one of the country’s biggest narcotics hauls on record, officials said.

A pair of naval gunboats intercepted a fishing vessel carrying 1.5 tonnes of methamphetamine hydrochloride off the coast of main island Luzon just before dawn, Commodore Edward de Sagon told a press conference.

Four people, including one foreigner, were arrested in the joint operation with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, according to de Sagon.

“We still don’t have the details of where (the drugs originated),” he said, saying they believed the haul had been transferred from a larger vessel to the fishing ship.

“That was when it was intercepted. There was information and (maneuvers) that made us suspicious,” de Sagon said.

Meth, known locally as shabu, is the most prevalent illegal drug in the Philippines.

“This is one of the largest illegal drug apprehensions in the history of the Philippine Navy,” navy spokesman John Percie Alcos said in a statement.

Earlier this month, a large volume of drugs was found adrift just north of the area where Wednesday’s arrests were made.

The Philippines’ biggest-ever drug seizure came in April last year when more than two tonnes of meth was seized at a police checkpoint on a road in Batangas province south of the capital, according to the presidential palace.


Rwanda arrests opposition leader, says investigative body

Updated 22 min 8 sec ago
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Rwanda arrests opposition leader, says investigative body

  • Ingabire is now accused of “playing a role in creating a criminal organization and engaging in acts that incite public disorder” according to the Rwanda Investigations Bureau

KIGALI: Rwanda has arrested prominent opposition leader Victoire Ingabire, who is being held at a detention facility in the capital Kigali on charges of inciting the public and creating a criminal organization, a state investigative agency said.
Ingabire was freed in 2018 after serving six years of a 15-year jail sentence handed to her in 2012 following her conviction on charges related to conspiring to form an armed group and seeking to minimize the 1994 genocide.
She is now accused of “playing a role in creating a criminal organization and engaging in acts that incite public disorder,” the Rwanda Investigations Bureau said in a statement late on Thursday.
It did not say when she would be charged in court.
Ingabire, who heads unregistered opposition party DALFA–Umurinzi, returned from exile in the Netherlands to contest a presidential election in 2010, but was barred from standing after being accused of genocide denial.
Last year President Paul Kagame, in power for a quarter of a century, won re-election after securing 99.18 percent of the vote, according to the electoral body.
Kagame is lauded for transforming Rwanda from the ruins of the 1994 genocide to a thriving economy but his reputation has also been tainted by longstanding accusations of rights abuses and supporting rebels in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.
He denies the allegations.


Taiwan detects 50 Chinese military aircraft around island

Updated 45 min 47 sec ago
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Taiwan detects 50 Chinese military aircraft around island

  • China insists democratic, self-ruled Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to bring the island under its control
  • Beijing has ramped up the deployment of fighter jets and naval vessels around Taiwan in recent years to press its claim of sovereignty

TAIPEI: Taiwan detected 50 Chinese military aircraft around the island, the defense ministry said Friday, days after a British naval vessel sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait.

China insists democratic, self-ruled Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to bring the island under its control.

Beijing has ramped up the deployment of fighter jets and naval vessels around Taiwan in recent years to press its claim of sovereignty, which Taipei rejects.

Taiwan also accuses China of using espionage, cyberattacks and disinformation to weaken its defenses.

Along with the 50 aircraft, six Chinese naval vessels were also detected in the 24 hours to 6:00 a.m. (2200 GMT Thursday), the defense ministry said.

It said in a separate statement that an additional 24 Chinese aircraft including fighters and drones were spotted since 08:50 am Friday.

Among them, 15 crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait in conducting air-sea joint training with Chinese naval vessels, the ministry said, adding it “monitored the situation and responded accordingly.”

The latest incursion came after British Royal Navy patrol vessel HMS Spey sailed through the Taiwan Strait on June 18, Taiwan’s foreign ministry said Thursday.

The United States and other countries view the 180-kilometer Taiwan Strait as international waters that should be open to all vessels.

The last time a British Navy ship transited the Taiwan Strait was in 2021, when the HMS Richmond, a frigate deployed with Britain’s aircraft carrier strike group, sailed through from Japan to Vietnam.

China strongly condemned Britain at the time and deployed its military to follow the vessel.

In April, Taiwan detected 76 Chinese aircraft and 15 naval vessels around the island, when Beijing conducted live-fire exercises that included simulated strikes aimed at the island’s key ports and energy sites.

The highest number of Chinese aircraft recorded was 153 on October 15, after China staged large-scale military drills in response to Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te’s National Day speech days earlier.


North Korea flag disrupts South Korea church livestream in ‘hacking incident’

Updated 43 min 8 sec ago
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North Korea flag disrupts South Korea church livestream in ‘hacking incident’

  • The incident occurred early Wednesday morning, when the livestream of the service by the Onnuri Church was abruptly filled with the North Korean flag, accompanied by what appeared to be Pyongyang’s propaganda music

SEOUL: One of South Korea’s largest megachurches said Friday its YouTube worship service was briefly hacked during a live broadcast to display the North Korean flag, with a government agency saying it was checking the details.
The incident occurred early Wednesday morning, when the livestream of the service by the Onnuri Church was abruptly filled with the North Korean flag, accompanied by what appeared to be Pyongyang’s propaganda music.
The flag was displayed for about 20 seconds, a church official told AFP, adding that the incident had been reported to the police.
“During the early morning worship service on June 18, an unexpected video was broadcast due to a hacking incident,” the church said in a separate statement.
“We are currently conducting an urgent investigation into the cause of the incident and will take appropriate measures as soon as the situation is clarified.”
South Korea’s state-run Korea Internet & Security Agency told AFP it was “looking into the case.”
Another Protestant church in Seoul, the Naesoo-Dong Church, told AFP it also experienced a similar hacking incident shortly before its YouTube worship service early Wednesday morning.
An “inappropriate” video was displayed for about 50 seconds due to an “external hacking” attack, Pastor Oh Shin-young told AFP, adding that the footage had no apparent connection to North Korea.
South Korea, widely recognized as among the most wired countries in the world, has long been a target of cyberhacking by North Korea, which has been blamed for several major attacks in the past.
Police announced last year that North Korean hackers were behind the theft of sensitive data from a South Korean court computer network — including individuals’ financial records — over a two-year period.
The stolen data amounted to more than one gigabyte.
Also last year, Seoul’s spy agency said North Korean spies were using LinkedIn to pose as recruiters and entice South Koreans working at defense companies so the spies could access information on the firms’ technology.