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Protesters disrupt Blinken as he asks Senate for emergency wartime funding for Israel
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Dozens of protesters shouting “Ceasefire now!” repeatedly disrupted a Senate hearing where top Biden Administration officials were seeking emergency wartime assistance funds for Israel and Ukraine.
Sen. Patty Murray, the Washington Democrat who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, asked the Capitol police to remove protesters from the room at least six times.
The protesters waited until Secretary of State Antony Blinken, began his testimony, allowing Murray and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the top Republican on the committee, to deliver their opening remarks without interruption.
Blinken, who is Jewish, appeared to be the main target of the protesters. By the time Lloyd Austin, the defense secretary began his testimony, the protesters appear to have stopped their outcries, although a contingent remained behind, raising hands stained with fake blood.
“Palestinians aren’t animals!” one woman screamed. “Stop funding the genocide!” Some of the protesters belonged to the Codepink, a woman’s antiwar protest group. In each instance, protesters chanted, “Ceasefire now!”
Another chant was, “From Palestine to Mexico, all the walls have got to go,” reflecting a bid by some on the progressive left to link the U.S. migrant crisis to Israeli actions on its border with the Gaza Strip.
Invading Hamas terrorists from Gaza killed more than 1,400 people, wounded thousands and abducted at least 240 people on Oct. 7. Israel has pounded Gaza with air strikes since then and in recent days began a ground incursion. The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry says that more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed, including thousands of children.
Blinken and Austin said the emergency funds were needed to assist two U.S. allied democracies at a time of crisis. Ukraine has been repelling a Russian invasion for more than 18 months.
As he closed his comments, Blinken also nodded toward the concerns of the protesters.
“I also hear very much passion [being] expressed in this room and outside this room,” he said. “All of us are committed to the protection of civilian life. All of us know the suffering that is taking place as we speak. All of us are determined to see it end. But all of us know the imperative of standing up with our allies and partners when their security, when their democracies are threatened. That’s what’s happening now. We stand resolutely with them even as we stand resolutely for the protection of innocent civilians.”
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Trump Administration to Release Over $5 Billion School Funding That It Withheld
US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and President Donald Trump, in the East Room at the White House in Washington, DC, US, March 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
President Donald Trump’s administration will release more than $5 billion in previously approved funding for K-12 school programs that it froze over three weeks ago under a review, which had led to bipartisan condemnation.
“(The White House Office of Management and Budget) has completed its review … and has directed the Department to release all formula funds,” Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communications at the U.S. Education Department, said in a statement, adding funds will be dispersed to states next week.
Further details on the review and what it found were not shared.
A senior administration official said “guardrails” would be in place for the amount being released, without giving details.
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 the money was misused to subsidize what it alleged was “a radical leftwing agenda.”
States say $6.8 billion in total was affected by the freeze. Last week, $1.3 billion was released.
After the freeze, a coalition of mostly Democratic-led states sued to challenge the move, and 10 Republican US senators wrote to the Republican Trump administration to reverse its decision.
The frozen 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 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.
Republican US lawmakers welcomed the move on Friday, while Democratic lawmakers said there was no need to disrupt funding in the first place.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon separately said she was satisfied with what was found in the review and released the money, adding she did not think there would be future freezes.
The post Trump Administration to Release Over $5 Billion School Funding That It Withheld first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel to Resume Airdrop Aid to Gaza on Saturday, Military Says
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
Israel will resume airdrop aid to Gaza on Saturday night, the Israeli military said, a few days after more than 100 aid agencies warned that mass starvation was spreading across the enclave.
“The airdrops will include seven pallets of aid containing flour, sugar, and canned food to be provided by international organizations,” the military added in a statement.
The post Israel to Resume Airdrop Aid to Gaza on Saturday, Military Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump Says Hamas ‘Didn’t Want to Make a Deal,’ Now Likely to Get ‘Hunted Down’
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – US President Donald Trump on Friday said the Palestinian jihadists of Hamas did not want to make a deal on a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza.
“Now we’re down to the final hostages, and they know what happens after you get the final hostages. And basically because of that, they really didn’t want to make a deal,” Trump said.
The comments followed statements by Middle East peace envoy Steve Witkoff and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the effect that Israel was now considering “alternative” options to achieve its goals of bringing its hostages home from Gaza and ending the terror rule of Hamas in the coastal enclave.
Trump added he believed Hamas leaders would now be “hunted down.”
On Thursday, Witkoff said the Trump administration had decided to bring its negotiating team home for consultations following Hamas’s latest proposal. Witkoff said overnight that Hamas was to blame for the impasse, with Netanyahu concurring.
Trump also dismissed the significance of French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement that Paris would become the first major Western power to recognize an independent Palestinian state.
Macron’s comments, “didn’t carry any weight,” the US leader said.
The post Trump Says Hamas ‘Didn’t Want to Make a Deal,’ Now Likely to Get ‘Hunted Down’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.