عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

US Supreme Court Lets Trump Withhold $4 Billion in Food Aid Funding for Now

FILE PHOTO: Volunteers load boxes of food into cars during an event held by the Community FoodBank of New Jersey in partnership with Bergen County to deliver emergency food relief to Federal workers and SNAP recipients amid the US government shutdown in Leonia, New Jersey, US, November 6, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Volunteers load boxes of food into cars during an event held by the Community FoodBank of New Jersey in partnership with Bergen County to deliver emergency food relief to Federal workers and SNAP recipients amid the US government shutdown in Leonia, New Jersey, US, November 6, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo
TT
TT

US Supreme Court Lets Trump Withhold $4 Billion in Food Aid Funding for Now

FILE PHOTO: Volunteers load boxes of food into cars during an event held by the Community FoodBank of New Jersey in partnership with Bergen County to deliver emergency food relief to Federal workers and SNAP recipients amid the US government shutdown in Leonia, New Jersey, US, November 6, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Volunteers load boxes of food into cars during an event held by the Community FoodBank of New Jersey in partnership with Bergen County to deliver emergency food relief to Federal workers and SNAP recipients amid the US government shutdown in Leonia, New Jersey, US, November 6, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo

The US Supreme Court on Friday allowed President Donald Trump's administration to withhold for now about $4 billion needed to fully fund a food aid program for 42 million low-income Americans this month amid the federal government shutdown.

The court's action, known as an administrative stay, gives a lower court additional time to consider the administration's formal request to only partially fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP or food stamps, for November. The administration had faced a judge-ordered Friday deadline to fully fund the program.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who issued the stay, set it to expire two days after the Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals rules on the administration's request to halt the order that it promptly pay the full amount of this month's SNAP program, which costs around $8.5 billion to $9 billion per month.

The ruling by US District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, on Thursday came after the administration said it would provide $4.65 billion in emergency funding to partially cover SNAP benefits for November.

Department of Justice lawyers said in a Supreme Court filing that McConnell's ruling, if allowed to stand, would "sow further shutdown chaos" by prompting "a run on the bank by way of judicial fiat."

McConnell last week ordered the USDA to use emergency SNAP funding to cover part of this month's cost. In Thursday's ruling, he ordered the USDA to make up for the shortfall with money from a separate department program with $23.35 billion in funding, derived from tariffs, that supports child nutrition.

McConnell, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, accused the Republican Trump administration of withholding SNAP benefits for "political reasons."

That ruling had handed a win to a coalition of legal challengers comprising cities and nonprofits represented by the liberal legal group Democracy Forward, and prompted the administration to ask the 1st Circuit on Friday to halt the order.

The plaintiffs told the 1st Circuit in court papers that the administration showed disregard for the harm that would befall nearly one in eight Americans if McConnell's decision were paused and SNAP recipients were denied full benefits.

"The court should deny Defendants' motion and not allow them to further delay getting vital food assistance to individuals and families who need it now," the lawyers wrote, according to Reuters.

The 1st Circuit on Friday denied the Trump administration's request to administratively stay McConnell's ruling. It has yet to issue a ruling on the administration's formal request to halt the judge's order but indicated it sought to do so quickly.

The USDA on Friday informed states it would be making funds available to fully fund SNAP, even as the administration filed court papers seeking to block McConnell's ruling, causing confusion.

After receiving the USDA memo, states including New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts said they had directed state agencies to issue SNAP benefits in full for November.

"President Trump should never have put the American people in this position," Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, a Democrat, said in a statement.

SNAP benefits lapsed at the start of the month for the first time in the program's 60-year history. Recipients have turned to already strained food pantries and made sacrifices like forgoing medications to stretch tight budgets.

SNAP benefits are paid monthly to eligible Americans whose income is less than 130% of the federal poverty line. The maximum monthly benefit for the 2026 fiscal year is $298 for a one-person household and $546 for a two-person household.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

US Envoy Kellogg Says Ukraine Peace Deal Is Really Close

A Ukrainian serviceman walks near apartment buildings damaged by a Russian military strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the frontline town of Kostiantynivka in Donetsk region, Ukraine November 15, 2025. (Oleg Petrasiuk/Press Service of the 24th King Danylo Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces/Handout via Reuters)
A Ukrainian serviceman walks near apartment buildings damaged by a Russian military strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the frontline town of Kostiantynivka in Donetsk region, Ukraine November 15, 2025. (Oleg Petrasiuk/Press Service of the 24th King Danylo Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces/Handout via Reuters)
TT
TT

US Envoy Kellogg Says Ukraine Peace Deal Is Really Close

A Ukrainian serviceman walks near apartment buildings damaged by a Russian military strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the frontline town of Kostiantynivka in Donetsk region, Ukraine November 15, 2025. (Oleg Petrasiuk/Press Service of the 24th King Danylo Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces/Handout via Reuters)
A Ukrainian serviceman walks near apartment buildings damaged by a Russian military strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the frontline town of Kostiantynivka in Donetsk region, Ukraine November 15, 2025. (Oleg Petrasiuk/Press Service of the 24th King Danylo Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces/Handout via Reuters)

US President Donald Trump's outgoing Ukraine envoy said a deal to end the Ukraine war was "really close" and now depended on resolving two main outstanding issues: the future of Ukraine's Donbas region and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops in the Donbas, which is made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The Ukraine war is the deadliest European conflict since World War Two and has triggered the biggest confrontation between Russia and the West since the depths of the Cold War.

US Special Envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg, who is due to step down in January, told the Reagan National Defense Forum that efforts to resolve the conflict were in "the last 10 meters" which he said was always the hardest.

The two main outstanding issues, Kellogg said, were on territory - primarily the future of the Donbas - and the future of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, which is under Russian control.

"If we get those two issues settled, I think the rest of the things will work out fairly well," Kellogg said on Saturday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California. "We're almost there."

"We're really, really close," said Kellogg.

Kellogg, a retired lieutenant general who served in Vietnam, Panama and Iraq, said the scale of the death and injuries caused by the Ukraine war was "horrific" and unprecedented in terms of a regional war.

He said that, together, Russia and Ukraine have suffered more than 2 million casualties, including dead and wounded since the war began. Neither Russia nor Ukraine disclose credible estimates of their losses.

Moscow says Western and Ukrainian estimates inflate its losses. Kyiv says Moscow inflates estimates of Ukrainian losses.

Russia currently controls 19.2% of Ukraine, including Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, all of Luhansk, more than 80% of Donetsk, about 75% of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, and slivers of the Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

A leaked set of 28 US draft peace proposals emerged last month, alarming Ukrainian and European officials who said it bowed to Moscow's main demands on NATO, Russian control of a fifth of Ukraine and restrictions on Ukraine's army.

Those proposals, which Russia now says contain 27 points, have been split up into four different components, according to the Kremlin. The exact contents are not in the public domain.

Under the initial US proposals, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, whose reactors are currently in cold shutdown, would be relaunched under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the electricity produced would be distributed equally between Russia and Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that he had had a long and "substantive" phone call with Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.

The Kremlin said on Friday it expected Kushner to be doing the main work on drafting a possible deal.

World

7.0 Earthquake Hits in Remote Wilderness Along Alaska-Canada Border

Hubbard Glacier, located near Yakutat, Alaska, is seen on Aug. 1, 2024. (AP)
Hubbard Glacier, located near Yakutat, Alaska, is seen on Aug. 1, 2024. (AP)
TT
TT

7.0 Earthquake Hits in Remote Wilderness Along Alaska-Canada Border

Hubbard Glacier, located near Yakutat, Alaska, is seen on Aug. 1, 2024. (AP)
Hubbard Glacier, located near Yakutat, Alaska, is seen on Aug. 1, 2024. (AP)

A powerful, magnitude-7.0 earthquake struck in a remote area near the border between Alaska and the Canadian territory of Yukon on Saturday. There was no tsunami warning, and officials said there were no immediate reports of damage or injury.

The US Geological Survey said it struck about 230 miles (370 kilometers) northwest of Juneau, Alaska, and 155 miles (250 kilometers) west of Whitehorse, Yukon.

In Whitehorse, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Calista MacLeod said the detachment received two 911 calls about the earthquake.

“It definitely was felt,” MacLeod said. “There are a lot of people on social media, people felt it.”

Alison Bird, a seismologist with Natural Resources Canada, said the part of Yukon most affected by the temblor is mountainous and has few people.

“Mostly people have reported things falling off shelves and walls,” Bird said. “It doesn’t seem like we’ve seen anything in terms of structural damage.”

The Canadian community nearest to the epicenter is Haines Junction, Bird said, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) away. The Yukon Bureau of Statistics lists its population count for 2022 as 1,018.

The quake was also about 56 miles (91 kilometers) from Yakutat, Alaska, which the USGS said has 662 residents.

It struck at a depth of about 6 miles (10 kilometers) and was followed by multiple smaller aftershocks.

World

Japan and Australia Urge Calm after Chinese Radar Locks on Japanese Jets

Printed Chinese and Japanese flags are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Purchase Licensing Rights
Printed Chinese and Japanese flags are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Purchase Licensing Rights
TT
TT

Japan and Australia Urge Calm after Chinese Radar Locks on Japanese Jets

Printed Chinese and Japanese flags are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Purchase Licensing Rights
Printed Chinese and Japanese flags are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Purchase Licensing Rights

Japan and Australia urged calm on Sunday after Chinese military aircraft locked radar on Japanese fighter jets, a month after the Japanese leader’s recent remarks on Taiwan that stirred tensions between Tokyo and Beijing.

Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said Japan formally protested the incident, calling it “an extremely regrettable” act and “a dangerous" one that "exceeded the scope necessary for safe aircraft operations.”

“We have lodged a strong protest with the Chinese side and demanded strict preventive measures,” Koizumi said.

Japan’s Defense Ministry said China’s military aircraft J-15 took off from the Chinese carrier Liaoning near the southern island of Okinawa on Saturday and “intermittently” latched its radar on Japanese F-15 fighter jets on two occasions Saturday, for about three minutes in the late afternoon and for about 30 minutes in the evening. It was not made clear whether the radar lock incident involved the same Chinese J-15 both times.

Japanese fighter jets that had been scrambled to pursue Chinese jets that were conducting aircraft takeoff and landing exercises in the Pacific. They were pursuing the Chinese aircraft at a safe distance and did not take actions that could be interpreted as provocation, Kyodo News agency said, quoting defense officials, when the radar lock happened. There was no breach of Japanese airspace, and no injury or damage was reported from the incident.

Senior Colonel Wang Xuemeng, spokesperson for the Chinese navy, defended China’s flight training near the Miyako island Saturday, saying Beijing announced the exercises beforehand and accused Japanese aircraft of “harassment.”

“We solemnly asked the Japanese side to immediately stop slandering and smearing, and strictly restrain its frontline actions. The Chinese Navy will take necessary measures in accordance with the law to resolutely safeguard its own security and legitimate rights and interests,” Wang said in a statement posted Sunday on the Chinese Ministry of Defense website.

Relations between Japan and China have worsened after Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said in early November its military could get involved if China were to take action against Taiwan, the self-governing island that Beijing claims as its own.

Japan and Australia, whose defense ministers held their scheduled talks in Tokyo on Sunday, expressed worry over the development.

“We are deeply concerned by the actions of China in the last 24 hours,” Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles told a joint news conference Sunday after holding talks with Koizumi. “We expect those interactions to be safe and professional."

Australia does “not want to see any change to the status quo across the Taiwan Straits,” Marles said, adding that China is his country's largest trade partner and he wants to have productive relations with Beijing.

“We continue to advocate to China about these issues again, in a very calm, sensible and moderate way,” he said.

Japan and Australia, during Sunday talks, agreed to bolster military ties to lead the region’s multilateral defense cooperation. The two ministers agreed to form a comprehensive “framework for strategic defense coordination” and discuss further details.

Tokyo has been accelerating its military buildup while expanding its defense ties beyond its only treaty ally, the United States. It now considers Australia to be a semi-ally.

Marles also visited a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries shipyard in Nagasaki on Saturday to observe production of the upgraded Mogami-class frigate that his country chose in September as a replacement for its aging fleet.

Saturday's radar lock is believed to be the first involving Japanese and Chinese military aircraft. In 2013, a Chinese warship targeted a radar on a Japanese destroyer, Kyodo said.

Fighter jets use radars for search operations or fire control ahead of a missile launch.

Elsewhere in the Pacific, the Philippine coast guard said China fired three flares toward a fisheries bureau plane on patrol in the South China Sea on Saturday. Chinese forces fire flares to warn planes to move away from what they consider their airspace over the disputed waters.