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Donald Trump signs executive order to ‘eliminate’ Department of Education
United States President Donald Trump has made good on a campaign promise to begin shuttering the Department of Education, though his efforts are likely to face court challenges and constitutional barriers.
On Thursday, the Republican leader held an elaborate ceremony to sign an executive order that would set in motion the department’s demise.
A semi-circle of children were arranged in desks around the president, each with their own version of the executive order to sign. When Trump uncapped his marker to sign the order, the children followed suit. When he lifted up the completed order for the cameras, so too did the kids.
“I will sign an executive order to begin eliminating the Federal Department of Education once and for all,” Trump said in remarks before the signing ceremony.
“And it sounds strange, doesn’t it? Department of Education, we’re going to eliminate it, and everybody knows it’s right, and the Democrats know it’s right.”
But Democrats and education advocates quickly denounced the action as not only another example of presidential overreach but as an effort that would harm students across the country.
“Attempting to dismantle the Department of Education is one of the most destructive and devastating steps Donald Trump has ever taken. This. Will. Hurt. Kids,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote on social media within minutes of the ceremony.
The order called for Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, a longtime Trump ally, to “take all necessary steps” to facilitate the department’s closure, which must be approved by Congress.
The Department of Education was founded in 1979 under President Jimmy Carter, as part of an effort to consolidate various education initiatives within the federal government. In doing so, he created a new cabinet-level position, something Republicans even then argued would leach power away from states and local school boards.
The department, however, has a limited mandate. It does not set curriculums or school programming but rather focuses on collecting data on education, disseminating research, distributing federal aid and enforcing anti-discrimination measures.
Trump bemoans test scores
Still, Trump has repeatedly held the department responsible for low educational achievement in US schools, an assertion experts say is misleading.
“ We’re not doing well with the world of education in this country. And we haven’t for a long time,” Trump said at Thursday’s ceremony.
The US does indeed trail other countries in global standardised test scores – but it is by no means last, as Trump has sometimes asserted.
The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), an international metric for education standards, has found that American students rank as average in their test scores: above countries like Mexico and Brazil but below places like Singapore, Japan and Canada.
Test scores had declined in mathematics from 2018 to 2022, something PISA attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. But achievements in reading and science remained stable.
Trump, meanwhile, also tied the Department of Education to his broader campaign to cut alleged waste and fraud in the federal government, including through widespread layoffs.
He explained from the podium on Thursday that he had offered buyout offers to Education Department employees.
“ We’ve cut the number of bureaucrats in half. Fifty percent have taken offers,” Trump said to applause.
He added that the employees consisted of “ a small handful of Democrats and others that we have employed for a long time – and there are some Republicans, but not too many, I have to be honest with you.”
Trump has previously pledged to expel all “Biden bureaucrats” and install loyalists instead.
Critics, however, say he has targeted nonpartisan civil service members with his layoffs, many of whom help maintain government stability from administration to administration.
One Trump ally who risks losing their position under the department shake-up is McMahon, the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment.
Trump, however, reassured her from the podium on Thursday that she would remain in his government: “We’re going to find something else for you, Linda.”
Does Trump have the authority?
Despite his executive order, Trump cannot single-handedly shutter the Department of Education.
Only Congress can formally shut down a cabinet-level department. But already, Republicans like Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana have stepped forward to begin legislative proceedings.
“I agree with President Trump that the Department of Education has failed its mission,” Cassidy said in a news release.
“Since the Department can only be shut down with congressional approval, I will support the President’s goals by submitting legislation to accomplish this as soon as possible.”
But if such legislation is introduced, it would likely not generate enough support to reach the threshold of 60 votes needed to overcome the filibuster in the 100-seat Senate.
“The Republicans don’t have that,” said Al Jazeera correspondent Shihab Rattansi, reporting from Washington, DC. The Republicans only have a 53-seat majority.
Still, Rattansi predicts the issue will likely end up before the Supreme Court, as education advocates prepare to mount legal challenges.
The Education Department, Rattansi explained, “is thought of as relatively low-hanging fruit” as the Trump administration tries to expand its executive reach.
“They have a very expansive view of executive power. They want to test that in court,” he said.
Part of the reason for its vulnerability is that the department is relatively young: It was founded within the last half-century.
But Rattansi warned that critical educational functions could be lost or suspended while legal challenges wind their way through the court system.
“What the Department of Education does is ensure equal access to education for minorities, for poor kids, for disabled children, and so on. So there’s that extra level of oversight that will now be – potentially, in the short term – removed as court cases are fought,” he said.
“In the long term, though, this is all about testing the limits of executive power for Donald Trump.”
Already, teachers’ unions like the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) are gearing up for a legal fight.
“As Republican governors at the White House celebrate the dismantling of a federal role in education, our members across the country are worried about the impact this will have on their students,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said in a statement. “This isn’t efficiency, it’s evisceration.”
What happens to the department’s functions?
Trump’s executive order does pledge to ensure “the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely”.
But critics fear programmes like the Pell Grant – which offers financial aid to low-income students – and services for students with disabilities could suffer as the department is taken apart. Trump tried to assuage those concerns on Thursday.
“They’re going to be preserved in full and redistributed to various other agencies and departments that will take very good care of them,” he said.
He did, however, emphasise that individual states would be taking over the bulk of the department’s functions. His order specified no further federal funds would go to programmes related to “gender ideology” or diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), two frequent targets of his ire.
“ We’re gonna shut it down and shut it down as quickly as possible,” Trump said of the Education Department.
“It’s doing us no good. We want to return our students to the states where just some of the governors here are so happy about this.”
In the audience was Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a former rival of Trump’s in the 2024 presidential election, who likewise campaigned on dismantling the department.
Still, critics like Democratic lawmaker Rashida Tlaib of Michigan argued there was no other agency capable of enforcing national standards for equal education access.
“The Department’s federal funding ensures that all children, regardless of who they are or which zip code they are born in, can achieve a quality education. Without the Department of Education, many of our kids will be left behind, unable to receive the education they need and deserve,” she wrote in a statement.
“Without the Department of Education, no one will be left to ensure civil rights laws are enforced in our schools.”
She added that Thursday’s move was blatantly unconstitutional. “I look forward to it being challenged in court.”
Getting home, and turning back the clock, has long been at the root of Christopher Nolan’s films. The astronauts of “Interstellar” painstakingly lose 23 years in space travel, almost the same length of time Odysseus is away from home in “The Odyssey”: a decade fighting the Trojan War, a decade trying to return to Ithaca.
So, to a remarkable degree, Nolan’s “The Odyssey” — faithful as it is to Homer’s epic poem — feels, down to its nonlinear DNA, like a Nolan movie. The authorship of the epic poem, dated to the 7th or 8th century BC, is complex. But no one could question the maker of this “Odyssey,” an earthy, existential epic that ravishingly melds the storytelling of antiquity with contemporary IMAX-sized bravado.
As a story about a man whose cunning offends the gods, “The Odyssey” feels very much like a companion piece, if not a downright sequel, to “Oppenheimer.” Odysseus (Matt Damon, in the role of his life) is increasingly racked with guilt for the violence and death he’s wrought after his ingenuity led to the sacking of Troy.
This image released by Universal Pictures shows Matt Damon, as Odysseus, in a scene from “The Odyssey.” (Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures via AP)
The arrival of any new Nolan spectacle inevitably leads to its own kind of assault, and avalanches of “masterpiece” proclamations. (I’m notinnocent.) But while “The Odyssey,” Nolan’s first film shot entirely with IMAX cameras, doesn’t skimp on grandiosity, it works surprisingly well as a simpler, human-sized tale.
The journey — you may have heard, it’s about the journey — is sometimes a little clunky, and the sheer Nolan-ness of the production, not to mention the historic nature of the tale, inevitably saps it of some freshness. You could make a credible case that Nolan has already made a movie about a guy trying to reach his family through strata of mind-warping illusion, and it’s called “Inception.” Such is the trouble with urtexts.
But “The Odyssey” is rarely not transfixing, and it’s a ripping adventure story, besides. At the least, it’s the definitive big-screen adaptation of one of literature’s oldest tales — a not-too-shabby accomplishment for a filmmaker of restless ambition.
It’s not until Book 5 that Odysseus enters Homer’s poem, and Nolan, who also wrote the screenplay, likewise begins in Ithaca. There, Odysseus’ home is overrun by feasting suitors in pursuit of his wife, Penelope (Anne Hathaway). Foremost among them is Antinous, who’s played with sleazy perfection by Robert Pattinson. For an actor often (pleasingly) at odds with the movies around him, Pattinson has never slid more seamlessly into a part.
Telemachus (Tom Holland, also well-cast), the youthful son of Penelope and Odysseus, resolves to go in search of his father. Meanwhile, we catch up with Odysseus, weathered and white-bearded, following the fall of Troy. His forced conscription, by Agamemnon, is shown in flashbacks. Agamemnon is depicted with an imposing Darth Vader-like presence and played by Benny Safdie, but the real star is his hulking, mohawked helmet.
This image released by Universal Pictures shows, from left, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, and Tom Holland as Telemachus, in a scene from “The Odyssey.” (Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures via AP)
Such vivid details abound in Nolan’s richly textured film. The simple rocking of Odysseus’ longship, off the Mediterranean coast, is glorious. Some of Nolan’s and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema’s most impressive work has come when they’re faced with the elements (as in “Dunkirk” ). And “The Odyssey” is flooded with stormy seas and enchanted isles. If anything, the movie could have gone further; I was promised rosy-fingered dawns.
The first line of Homer’s poem, as translated by Emily Wilson (the version Nolan leaned on), refers to Odysseus as “a complicated man.” James Joyce, whose “Ulysses” was based on “The Odyssey,” once noted that while Hamlet is merely a son, Ulysses, or Odysseus, is a father, a husband, a lover and a warrior. In short, he’s an Everyman, albeit an especially smart one. And Damon, the most amiable of Everymen, proves especially attuned to the multifaceted nature of the archetypal hero.
We meet him first as a soldier, leading a small group of ships away from Agamemnon’s fleet, setting a southerly course with his second-in-command Eurylochus (an excellent Himesh Patel). Their route takes them on a series of episodic quests: a cave encounter with Polyphemus, the Cyclops; a pine forest attack by the man-eating giants, the Laestrygonians; a meal with the witch Circe (Samantha Morton); and Odysseus’ seven-year interlude with the sea nymph Calypso (a beguilingly sincere Charlize Theron).
This image released by Universal Pictures shows a scene from “The Odyssey.” (Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures via AP)
You could argue that the movie can feel like a series of sketched-together set pieces, but what set pieces! That includes the tale of the Trojan horse, a fleeting mention in the poem but here a centerpiece. You can tell that Nolan, who nearly made “Troy” more than two decades ago, has had the sequence — beginning with the Trojan horse sunk in the sand and leading to the burning of Troy — on his mind for years.
Each stop on Odysseus’ journey gives Nolan a mythic playground to explore imagery that verges on the stuff of horror. I was most intoxicated by “The Odyssey” in its most surreal moments: the sight of a giant hand emerging out of the shadows, the meeting with the “shades” of Odysseus’ dead army, risen from the black soil of Hades.
“A time of apparent magic” is how the movie is introduced. Nolan has wisely opted to keep the gods sidelined. Their powers are real, but with the exception of Zendaya’s Athena, who appears like a confidant to Odysseus, the gods, themselves, remain off-screen.
That choice draws Nolan’s “Odyssey,” and its themes of sacrifice, fidelity and honor, closer to reality. And it makes Nolan’s decision to cast his film widely all the more essential. This is a story, passed down for centuries by singers and storytellers, that belongs to all of humankind. Casting the movie with a wide spectrum of actors, including Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy, is not only fair game for a purely mythic tale but it gives the movie a present-day vitality. Seeing actors like Elliot Page (indelible as a fallen soldier), John Leguizamo (as the loyal servant Eumaeus) and Damon in this ancient context is a very big reason to see “The Odyssey,” and why Homer’s told and retold tale is worth revisiting, at all. If today has no role, what’s the point? They didn’t have cameras in 700 B.C., either.
This image released by Universal Pictures shows a scene from “The Odyssey.” (Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures via AP)
Nolan’s “Odyssey” is nearly three hours long but never slow going. And it’s the friction between past and present that propels the movie as much as Odysseus’ wayward path. Gender roles are examined even while traditional masculinity is upheld. The ending of the poem, a tricky thing since it features mass murder, is given a more palatable action-movie melee. But the essence of “The Odyssey” is here, and Odysseus’ quest to live down his mistakes and uphold his convictions feels vibrant again. Nolan, you might say, is at home.
“The Odyssey,” a Universal Pictures release in theaters Thursday, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for violence and some language. Running time: 172 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.
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American mother Jamey Carney was remembered at her funeral as a devoted parent who had built a happy life in Ireland before her life was violently cut short.
Carney, 43, a New York native who moved to Ireland in 2021 with her teenage daughter, was violently beaten and suffocated in her home in Killarney, County Kerry, last week. A Jordanian failed asylum seeker who was living in Ireland and was romantically involved with Carney was arrested in relation to the case in his home country after fleeing Ireland via Istanbul after her death, according to Irish media.
Mourners gathered at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Killarney to pay their final respects during a service celebrating Carney’s life. The service was livestreamed, allowing friends and family around the world to join in mourning before a private cremation.
AMERICAN MOTHER MURDERED IN IRISH TOURIST TOWN AS INTERNATIONAL MANHUNT TARGETS ALLEGED ASYLUM SEEKER
The remains of Jamey Carney are carried from St Mary’s Cathedral, Killarney by her mother Kathleen (left), sister Devon (blue hair) and relatives in Killarney, Kerry, Ireland, Wednesday, July 15, 2026. The 43 year-old New York native was found dead in her home on July 7. (Michael Mac Sweeney/Provision for Fox News Digital))
“Today we don’t dwell on Jamey’s death, but we dwell on her life,” Fr. Kieran O’Brien told mourners.
During the service, O’Brien reflected on Carney’s life growing up in New York alongside her sister, Devon, before recalling her “big decision” to move to Killarney—a choice he described as “the best decision of her life.”
He said she and her daughter, Michaela, had found a place they proudly called home, with Michaela settling into school and becoming actively involved in Irish sports.
The priest described Carney as a woman whose “joy radiated” from her, saying she had built a close circle of friends after moving to Killarney and found happiness in simple things. He recalled her love of country music, travel, shopping, going to concerts and spending time with friends.
“She was happy in life and she was happy with life because life was good to her,” he said.
“But her real love in life was you, Michaela,” he added, addressing Carney’s daughter.
“We thank God for Jamey’s life, remembering at all times her joy, and the ray of sunshine that she brought to all of your lives,” he added.
Jamey Carney’s sister Devon, is consoled at the funeral for the 43 year-old at St Mary’s Cathedral, Killarney, Kerry, Ireland, Wednesday, July 15, 2026. The New York native was found dead in her home on July 7. (Michael Mac Sweeney/Provision for Fox News Digital)
Family members carried a series of personal items to the altar celebrating Carney’s life, including photographs of her daughter, Michaela, and her dog, Penny. A cowboy hat symbolizing her love of country music, the passports she and Michaela used to start their new life together in Ireland and an angel statue were also brought forward.
A framed photograph of Carney rested atop her coffin, which was positioned before the altar and draped in a white pall.
As Carney’s coffin departed St. Mary’s Cathedral following the funeral mass, young members of Dr. Crokes GAA Club formed a guard of honor outside the church. Carney’s grieving sister, Devon, wearing a Kerry GAA jersey and clutching a sunflower, was distraught as family members gathered around the hearse.
The service centered on celebrating Carney’s life, her family and the community she built in Ireland rather than the disturbing circumstances surrounding her death and subsequent murder investigation.
Detectives believe Carney was killed around 11 p.m. Monday, roughly 14 hours before her 13-year-old daughter discovered her body at about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. By then, the man had traveled roughly 200 miles by bus to Dublin Airport and boarded a flight to Istanbul, according to the Irish Independent.
Irish police have yet to publicly identify the person they want to question in the investigation or release his name, photograph or any physical description.
Irish police confirmed to Fox News Digital they were aware “of the arrest of a male in Jordan by the Jordanian authorities,” but did not identify the man or confirm he was the person of interest in the investigation. Police also confirmed they “have not made any request to the Jordanian authorities for the arrest of any person at this time.”
WATCH: Person of interest detained in murder of US mom in Ireland
MIGRANT WHO FLED IRELAND AFTER AMERICAN MOTHER’S MURDER IS ARRESTED IN JORDAN
Irish media have widely identified the man as the person of interest in the investigation, though Irish police have not publicly confirmed his identity.
Ireland does not have an extradition treaty with Jordan, where the man is being detained, according to the Irish Independent.
Fox News Digital asked Irish police and Ireland’s Department of Justice to confirm reports that the man had previously been refused asylum while appealing that decision. Neither agency confirmed the reports.
The man had been living in state-run accommodation for asylum seekers in Killarney before spending increasing amounts of time at Carney’s home after they became romantically involved, according to the Irish Mirror.
American citizen Jamey Carney, left, was found dead at her home in Killarney, County Kerry, last week. Irish police have launched a murder investigation into her death. (Jamey Carney/Facebook | iStock)
He first arrived in the United Kingdom before traveling through Northern Ireland and eventually settling in County Kerry, according to the Irish Mirror.
His social media accounts contain posts from the United Kingdom and Turkey in recent years.
Meanwhile, the FBI told Fox News Digital it stands ready to assist Irish authorities if requested.
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“Through our Legal Attaché in London, we have strong, established relationships and stand ready to assist in any way that the Irish government may request,” the FBI said in a statement.
The State Department told Fox News Digital it is providing consular assistance to the family.
Published on
Russia is planning attacks on critical infrastructure in the Baltic states or Poland, Lithuanian and Latvian presidents warned on Wednesday, citing intelligence reports.
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“We are talking about energy and transport infrastructur, facilities where damage could… disrupt the functioning of the entire energy system,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said at a joint press conference in Vilnius with his Latvian counterpart, Edgars Rinkevics.
“This planning is taking place at the highest level, effectively in Moscow,” he added.
Rinkevics warned that Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, all EU and NATO members, must be prepared for provocative actions by Russia as it seeks to “test” the alliance’s mutual defence pact amid its war in Ukraine.
“Even without a total Ukrainian victory, Russia may indirectly test Article 5 and response mechanisms at the alliance and European Union levels,” he said.
In late June, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told a press conference “various types of escalation can be expected in the coming weeks and months”, calling the situation “very unstable”.
Baltic and Polish officials have already linked Russia to several incidents including arson, cyberattacks and diversions on railway lines.
The Lithuanian president said his country had strengthened protection of its transport and energy infrastructure in response to the threats.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov disputed the claims.
“This is just another fresh batch of scare stories designed to keep the brainwashing going and prepare the population for further militarisation,” he said.
Located along the Baltic Sea and bordering Russia and its close ally, Belarus, Lithuania has been a key ally to Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in 2022.
Lithuania is NATO’s highest security spender in relative terms, allocating 5.33%of its GDP to defence.
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