Trump’s $300B Iran investment fund may be ‘close to impossible’ due to IRGC sanctions law, expert warns

2026-06-19T06:00:24-04:00 / Fox News

Expert says negotiators may not have been counting on a final deal, calling the fund structure unworkable

By Efrat Lachter Fox News

Published June 19, 2026 6:00am EDT

Iran deal’s $300B investment fund may be ‘almost impossible’ to implement, former Treasury official warns

Miad Maleki says the White House’s Iran memorandum sanctions promises raise doubts that negotiators were counting on a final deal, warning 180-day waivers are unlikely to attract serious investors.

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A proposed $300 billion investment fund for Iran included in the U.S.–Iran memorandum of understanding may face major legal obstacles under existing U.S. sanctions law, raising questions about whether the plan is workable even if both sides move toward a final agreement.

The memorandum, digitally signed Wednesday by President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, is aimed at ending the war and restoring traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. As part of the 14-point plan, the U.S. agreed to lift sanctions on Iran, allow Tehran to increase its oil revenue and regain access to parts of the international banking system, among other measures.

But one of the most ambitious parts of the framework — a proposed $300 billion private investment fund for Iran’s reconstruction and development — may collide with a longstanding U.S. determination that Iran’s construction sector is controlled directly or indirectly by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The issue is not just technical. It goes to whether one of the central economic promises of the Trump-Iran framework can realistically be executed under current U.S. law. If the $300 billion fund depends on investment in sectors Washington has already identified as IRGC-controlled, experts say the administration may be forced to rely on temporary waivers or new licenses — a legal structure that could make long-term investors wary and complicate any final deal.

TOP SENATE REPUBLICAN RIPS INTO TRUMP’S IRAN DEAL, SAYS $300 BILLION MAKES OBAMA DEAL LOOK LIKE ‘A PITTANCE’

A proposed $300 billion investment fund for Iran included in the U.S.–Iran memorandum of understanding may face major legal obstacles under existing U.S. sanctions law.(Mandel NGAN / AFP via Getty Images)

The State Department formally determined in 2020, and again in May 2025, that Iran’s construction sector was controlled directly or indirectly by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Under the Iran Freedom and Counter-Proliferation Act, known as IFCA, that finding creates sanctions risks for people or companies doing business in the sector.

Miad Maleki, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control executive, told Fox News Digital that the legal and sanctions-related problems surrounding the fund are more complicated than simply asking whether Congress would have to approve it.

“I think Congress is unavoidable for a durable version of that investment,” Maleki said. “If we have a final deal and now as part of this commitment, the U.S. government and allies are going to have to go in and help Iran to set up this fund or get access to such a fund.”

Maleki said the president has meaningful unilateral authority to begin easing restrictions. Trump could revoke relevant executive orders, direct the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to issue general licenses and waive some congressional sanctions laws.

But he said that does not mean the fund would be durable enough to attract serious investors.

“Technically, the fund could be switched on through some kind of an executive action plan alone, but it would be on paper and it would have to be renewed every 180 days,” Maleki said, referring to waivers for mandatory sanctions tied to Iran’s construction sector.

JD VANCE REVEALS DETAILS OF US-IRAN DEAL, ADDRESSES WHETHER TAXPAYER MONEY WILL GO TO TEHRAN

An Iranian police officer stands on patrol near a poster depicting Iranian soldiers holding a net shaped like the Strait of Hormuz with U.S. military aircraft ensnared in Tehran, Iran, on May 9, 2026.(Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)

“If you’re anyone who is in an investment-type business, it’s hard to find someone who would be investing in construction-type projects that take time,” he added. “These projects are not like 180-day projects.”

The concern, Maleki said, is especially acute in Iran, where investors would face sanctions uncertainty, political risk and an unreliable partner.

“It’s hard to find someone who would be investing … based on something that could not just be renewed if Iran, especially in the context of Iran, where you don’t really have a reliable partner, where things can blow up any minute,” he said.

TRUMP’S IRAN DEAL ‘GIVING A LOT MORE TO GET A LOT LESS’ THAN OBAMA’S, SENATOR SAYS

A woman walks past a billboard showing a military hand holding the Strait of Hormuz with Farsi text which reads, “In Iran’s hands forever,” “Trump couldn’t do a damn thing,” “The control of Strait of Hormuz will be Iran’s forever,” in Vanak Square, in northern Tehran, Iran, on April 16, 2026.(Vahid Salemi/AP)

That structure raises a broader question about whether negotiators were truly expecting the memorandum to mature into a final, durable agreement.

“The more I’ve been digging into this memorandum of understanding, sanctions paragraphs of this memorandum, the more I have come to this kind of doubt that the negotiators really were counting on a final deal to be reached,” Maleki said.

“If you do get to a final agreement and you’re looking into actually meeting the commitments that you made, this $300 billion investment fund, it’s not something you can really set up,” he added. “I think it would be almost close to impossible to get something that would materialize.”

READ IT: THE FULL TEXT OF THE US-IRAN MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING:

Iranians burn American flags during an anti-U.S. demonstration outside the former U.S. embassy headquarters in Tehran, Iran, on May 9, 2018, after President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.(Photographer: Ali Mohammadi/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Maleki said one possible explanation is that the U.S. side may view its role as limited to providing sanctions relief, while leaving Iran and potential investors to sort out whether the fund can actually be built.

“We’re going to give them the waivers that they need. If they can’t find investors to invest in this, that’s their problem,” he said, describing one possible view of the negotiators’ approach.

The Treasury Department and the Iranian mission to the U.N. did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

The issue could become a congressional flashpoint. Because IFCA waivers are limited to 180 days and require justification to Congress, any long-term investment framework for Iran could force the administration to repeatedly defend why sanctions tied to an IRGC-controlled sector should be suspended.

The legal obstacles also come as critics warn the pact gives Iran major economic benefits while leaving some of the most difficult nuclear and security questions for future negotiations. Maleki said the U.S. had already built significant leverage over Iran through sanctions, military pressure and the blockade, but may now be trading that leverage for the reopening of Hormuz.

“We reached a point that we had leverage that no U.S. president has ever had with Iran,” Maleki said. “Yet we gave that away for this, for the opening of the Strait of Hormuz.”

He argued that Iran is likely to use the process to delay rather than rush toward a final agreement.

“Iran is going to go back to its playbook of dragging, buying time with the sanctions relief-type incentives that I’m seeing in this package,” Maleki said. “I do not think that the Iranian regime is going to rush to get to a deal.”

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A man applies fresh paint to an anti-U.S. mural on a building wall on Karim Khan Zand Avenue in Tehran on April 8, 2025. The mural features the slogan “Down with the USA” and skulls replacing stars on the U.S. flag.(Atta Kenare/AFP)

John Hannah, a senior fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America and a former national security adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, warned that any economic windfall from the agreement could help the IRGC rebuild.

“It’s almost certain that the IRGC will use any economic windfall granted by this MOU to reconstitute as much of their conventional military as possible as fast as possible — especially the vast missile and drone arsenal that the IRGC believes proved critical to the strategic successes they achieved during the war,” Hannah told Fox News Digital.

Efrat Lachter is a reporter for Fox News Digital covering international affairs and the United Nations. Follow her on X @efratlachter. Stories can be sent to efrat.lachter@fox.com.

Trump’s new acting intel chief Bill Pulte arrives early, eyes firing hundreds

2026-06-19T08:00:25.816Z / CNN

• Trump’s acting intelligence chief Bill Pulte arrived a day early after asking for a list of every employee in the office so he could assess whether to fire them, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN
• Sources say Pulte is considering cutting hundreds of jobs at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
• Pulte previously did not have a security clearance and has no intelligence experience before taking the role.

AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.

President Donald Trump’s pick for acting director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, showed up at his new job a day early on Thursday after asking for a list of every employee in the office so he could assess whether to fire them, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

The sources said Pulte is eyeing to cut hundreds of jobs at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).

Pulte’s appearance at ODNI on Thursday caught staff off-guard, including the outgoing director, Tulsi Gabbard, who was given a brief heads up on the visit. Trump himself has said that Pulte, who is a Trump loyalist with no intelligence experience, would start his job on Friday.

Pulte met with lawyers and staffers during his visit, the sources told CNN.

In his only other briefing with ODNI last week, Pulte asked staff if he could bring the President’s Daily Brief to his house, raising alarm bells among intelligence officials, according to one of the sources. That briefing is a highly classified set of intelligence on key national security matters of the day. The second source pushed back on this characterization, noting that the PDB is provided electronically.

Pulte also asked about his level of security clearance — whether it was a top-secret — and if he had access to a government plane, the first source said, even though the briefing was meant to explain the core mission of ODNI to Pulte.

CNN has reached out to the White House and ODNI for comment.

CNN previously reported that before Pulte was announced to lead the US intelligence community, he did not have a security clearance granting him access to highly-classified information — meaning he lacked what has long been considered a basic prerequisite for the job.

Another source familiar told CNN that Pulte has repeatedly inquired about his schedule and whether he gets his own government plane, appearing almost overly fixated on his ability to travel between DC, Florida and Chicago — between which he splits his time.

“That was a bit odd,” the source said about Pulte’s questions related to his schedule and the demands of the job.

Pulte had also asked for a protective security detail even before starting the job, according to the first source.

The episodes, which have not previously been reported, indicate that Pulte feels empowered to begin his tenure as spy chief in an aggressive fashion. Trump has already given him a mandate to further shrink the intelligence community and pursue the president’s false claims of election fraud.

There is concern from Democrats — and some Republicans — on Capitol Hill that he is unfit for the job and that he could go further than Gabbard did in embracing Trump’s grievances in what is supposed to be an apolitical role.

Pulte’s standing in Trump’s eyes grew over the last year when, as head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, he sent the Justice Department criminal referrals on allegations of mortgage fraud against multiple Democrats who have pushed investigations into Trump. Now, critics fear, the 38-year-old former businessman will have an even bigger platform to pursue Trump’s vendettas.

“This isn’t something to overthink — President Trump wanted someone in that position who is a true loyalist, who will do what he wants him to do. He has that in Bill,” one source close to Pulte previously told CNN.

Now, Pulte takes the job overseeing 18 intelligence agencies as the US and Iran enter an agreement to end a four-month war in which Gabbard played an unusually marginal role for a spy chief. He also enters a job that Gabbard has used to hunt for evidence of voter fraud around the 2020 election that Trump lost. That pursuit risked crossing a crucial line between foreign and domestic intelligence activities instituted after Watergate, former intelligence officials and election law experts have told CNN.

Even before Thursday, Pulte was eager to start as acting DNI. He called Gabbard last week and told her that he was taking over, two sources familiar with the phone call told CNN. Gabbard, who had been assured by the White House that she would remain in the post through the end of the month, was shocked and told Pulte she would need to hear it from Trump himself. Later, Gabbard spoke to Trump who asked her what day would work for her to depart the office, and the two settled on June 19. (Axios first reported that exchange.)

On Thursday, Pulte tried to attend Gabbard’s send-off ceremony at ODNI and asked to speak, the source familiar with the episode indicated.

Pulte’s elevation within Trump’s orbit has even irked some of Trump’s closest advisers and allies. Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has kept a tight circle around the president, one that Pulte has completely circumvented through direct calls to the president.

“Every weekend, every trip — he makes sure he is by the president’s side,” one Trump adviser told CNN.

Trump has said Pulte will remain director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency while serving as acting director of national intelligence (DNI). The move left many intelligence professionals scratching their heads because the spy chief is not considered a part-time job.

Pulte could have more time than anticipated as acting DNI after disarray this week in the nomination process for Trump’s permanent pick for the role, Jay Clayton. Trump directed Clayton to skip his own confirmation on Wednesday over a bitter dispute on Capitol Hill over a lapsed surveillance law, among other issues.

Pressed on the status of Clayton’s nomination, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said: “I’ve never been asked to slow a nomination down before, so that’s probably a good question for the White House.”

Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton issued a rare statement of disapproval at Trump’s move, calling it “regrettable that the president has directed Jay Clayton not to appear at his confirmation hearing today.”

A senior Senate GOP aide told CNN: “There’s a lot of frustration in the conference. We want to support and advance the President’s agenda but it’s getting more difficult to do with the consistent curve balls out of left field.”

Pulte did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday. CNN has requested comment on Pulte’s priorities for his new job from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

GOP Sen. Mike Rounds, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he does not know what Pulte’s priorities will be on the job and emphasized that the goal should be looking past Pulte’s tenure and getting Clayton in the job permanently as quickly as possible.

“I’ve had no interaction with him for months” Rounds said of Pulte. “I think the most important thing for us is to get Jay in as quickly as possible as the Director of National Intelligence.”

Trump told reporters this month that Pulte “may find out some things about the rigged elections … I think he wants to do it very much.”

For election officials, it reinforced a fear that the undermining of confidence in elections from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence may not stop with Gabbard’s departure.

“DNI Gabbard, whose role regarding elections is limited to foreign interference, spent 18 months and untold taxpayer dollars and resources trying to give substance to lies about the 2020 election … and found absolutely nothing,” said David Becker, an election law expert who is executive director of the nonprofit and nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research.

Becker, who works with election officials from both parties, said he worries that “Pulte has been hand-picked to replace her precisely because he too embraces the lies and conspiracy theories while ignoring the evidence.”

澳大利亚南极局于6月18日发布的照片显示，一个野生动物小组正在评估赫德岛上南部象海豹大规模死亡的地点。 （法新社）

澳大利亚宣布，在西南部偏远地区发现首个疑似H5N1禽流感病例。

路透社报道，西澳大利亚州农业部长贾维斯星期五（6月19日）说，在勒格兰角国家公园（Cape Le Grand National Park）发现的候鸟褐贼鸥（brown skua）禽流感病毒检测呈阳性，目前正在进行检测以确认病毒株。

贾维斯说：“我们非常重视这个疑似H5禽流感病例。如果确定为H5禽流感入侵，我们将迅速采取协调一致的全国应对措施。”

自2021年以来，高致病性的H5禽流感病毒株已在野生鸟类和哺乳动物中传播，造成数百万只动物死亡，并感染家禽和奶牛场内的动物，甚至一些农场工人。

澳大利亚是目前唯一尚未出现确诊病例的大陆，当局一直在为疫情的到来做准备，包括加强农场的生物安全措施、对滨鸟进行疾病检测、为易感物种接种疫苗以及制定应对方案。

环境部长瓦特发布的声明中说：“如果疫情得到证实，这无疑将是一个非常令人担忧的进展，但澳大利亚过去几年一直在为此做好准备。”

贾维斯说，预计将于星期六（20日）公布确认已死亡的褐贼鸥是否感染禽流感的检测结果。她补充说，在同一地区还发现一只患病的巨鹱（giant petrel），目前正在进行禽流感检测。

As union leader, Democrat-backed Senate candidate Dan Osborn helped alert ICE to claims of undocumented workers

2026-06-19T09:00:25.669Z / CNN

Dan Osborn, the Democratic Party–backed independent running for Senate in Nebraska, has spent part of his campaign courting voters critical of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement.

He has sharply condemned the president’s tactics, criticizing the use of masked agents, saying that immigrant labor is essential to Nebraska’s economy and that federal raids on factories and restaurants are hurting business owners.

Complicating that message is Osborn’s role as a labor leader during a bitter strike five years ago at an Omaha Kellogg’s cereal plant. In the midst of the strike, Osborn and his union worked to alert federal immigration authorities to allegations that Kellogg’s replaced striking workers with undocumented immigrants.

“Kellogg’s bringing in replacement workers, we have it on good authority that they’re replacing us with a good percentage of undocumented workers,” Osborn said in December 2021 on a pro-union podcast. “We have been in contact with Homeland Security and ICE. We’ve made our claims. I hope they do the right thing and investigate our claims.”

Osborn offered no evidence in the interview that Kellogg’s was employing undocumented workers, and CNN could not independently verify the allegation. While reporting at the time documented Kellogg’s use of temporary replacement labor, no public reporting identified any of those workers as undocumented, and CNN’s review of the record found no evidence supporting the claim. Kellogg’s did not respond to a request for comment.

Osborn’s campaign now says he never personally contacted ICE or DHS. Instead, Osborn called the local sheriff’s department to ask how such allegations should be reported, the campaign said in a statement to CNN. He then passed that guidance to his team, the campaign said, while others contacted federal authorities on their own “in their individual capacity.”

A spokesperson for ICE declined to confirm or deny whether the agency received any tip connected to the Kellogg’s strike, citing a policy of not identifying people who report suspected immigration violations.

Less than two weeks after Osborn’s podcast appearance, workers ratified a new contract and the 77-day strike came to an end.

Osborn has built his political identity as a pro-labor populist independent — a Navy veteran and former union president who lost but overperformed in a 2024 Senate run and is now relying on a coalition that depends heavily on Democratic voters who, polling shows, have grown sharply hostile to ICE.

Osborn’s comments from 2021 could complicate that effort, especially as immigration enforcement has become one of the most polarizing issues in American politics — and as Osborn attempts a balancing act that few candidates have managed.

His independent brand depends on holding together Trump voters drawn to his economic populism and Democrats who anchor his coalition, and no issue strains that coalition more than immigration.

On the trail Osborn has tried to occupy the middle, pairing tough border language with sympathy for longtime undocumented residents.

He has said he wants longtime undocumented immigrants to have a path to citizenship, that immigrant labor is essential to filling Nebraska’s open jobs, and that undocumented immigrants should be able to get Social Security cards as part of their process of becoming legal immigrants. He says he supports immigration reform, but only when the border is secure with a wall.

Osborn’s also been unsparing in some of his criticism of Trump’s immigration tactics.

“I mentioned that it’s hurting businesses, but it’s also not humanly decent,” Osborn said on The Bulwark podcast in August 2025. “We’re seeing factories, get raided, meat cutters get raided. We’re seeing people not showing up to work at restaurants. We are seeing business owners get hurt by this immigration policy. So the economic conservative side of me is extremely worried about that.”

A 2025 Pew Research Center survey underscores the political tension around ICE for Democratic-backed candidates like Osborn: while 72% of Republicans viewed ICE favorably, Democrats overwhelmingly viewed the agency negatively, with just 13% expressing a favorable opinion and 78% viewing it unfavorably.

A tense labor standoff with Kellogg’s

Osborn’s 2021 comments came in the midst of what was then a tense standoff between Kellogg’s and the labor union Osborn was leading at the time.

Roughly 1,400 Kellogg’s workers across four US plants walked off the job over wages, benefits and the company’s two-tier employment system, which paid newer hires lower wages and offered fewer benefits than longtime “legacy” workers. As the strike dragged on, Kellogg’s threatened to permanently replace striking workers and continued operating plants with replacement labor.

At the time, Osborn was serving as president of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Local 50G. The strike ended after 77 days, when workers ratified a new contract on December 21, 2021, that raised wages for workers and created a path for newer employees to move into legacy positions. “It will be difficult to go back. There is a lot of tarnished relationships that we will work diligently to repair,” said Osborn at the time.

Asked by CNN about his efforts to alert authorities to Kellogg’s replacement workers , Osborn’s campaign sought to draw a distinction between the candidate and others involved in the strike, saying he personally never contacted federal immigration authorities.

“Dan contacted the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department to inquire about the proper procedures for how to investigate and report that the company was replacing their striking workers with undocumented workers. He passed the information from the Sheriff’s office along to members of his team,” his campaign told CNN. “Many of the individuals who raised the concerns about Kellogg’s replacing the striking workers with undocumented workers contacted DHS and ICE in their individual capacity. Dan never contacted DHS and ICE himself.”

The Nebraska Democratic Party’s decision not to field its own Senate candidate and instead back Osborn stems largely from his unexpectedly strong 2024 Senate run, when, running as an independent, he lost to Republican Sen. Deb Fischer by roughly 7 points in a state Donald Trump carried by about 20 points.

During that campaign, Osborn frequently blended tougher border rhetoric with calls for broader immigration reform. In campaign materials, he argued that “illegal immigration creates a pool of cheap labor with no rights and is detrimental to every American worker,” while also emphasizing the economic importance of legal immigration.

Osborn’s campaign casts the Kellogg’s episode in those same terms, as a fight against corporate power rather than against immigrants.

“When we were on strike against Kellogg’s, we received reports that they may be bringing undocumented labor as our permanent replacements, and members of the community stood up to protect these local union jobs and hold corporate power accountable,” Osborn said in a statement. “There’s a reason why we haven’t had real immigration reform in this country: mega-corporations who use Citizens United to fund career politicians in DC are benefitting from our broken immigration system by exploiting undocumented immigrants to create a cheap pool of labor, driving down wages to boost their own profits while undercutting American workers.”

Osborn now is mounting a second straight Senate run, this time against Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts — a former governor and Trump endorsee.

In a September 2024 campaign ad, Osborn declared: “I’m where President Trump is on corruption, China, the border. If Trump needs help building the wall — well, I’m pretty handy.” He also said: “Social security to illegals? Who would be for that?”

At the same time, Osborn also spoke sympathetically about long-term undocumented immigrants already living in the United States.

“These people are our friends. They’re our neighbors. A lot of them have been here 30 years or more, and I think it’s time they get into Social Security already,” Osborn said during a 2024 interview, while also arguing Nebraska could “certainly use immigrant labor” to help fill open jobs.

Gov Sanders reveals ‘major breakthrough’ on education as red state positions itself as ‘blueprint’ for nation

2026-06-19T06:00:02-04:00 / Fox News

Mathematics proficiency rose from 36.4% to 44.2% and science from 35.6% to 44.0% since the 2023 LEARNS Act took effect

By Kiera McDonald , Andrew Mark Miller Fox News

Published June 19, 2026 6:00am EDT | Updated June 19, 2026 6:35am EDT

Sarah Sanders outlines how major education shakeup has led to results in her state

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders tells Fox News Digital test scores are on the rise in Arkansas and that she hopes her state can serve as a national blueprint.

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EXCLUSIVE:As Democrats across the country criticize education programs in red states, Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is touting a major achievement in her state she hopes will serve as an education blueprint for all states, regardless of politics, nationwide.

“The thing we’re most excited about is the fact that so many Arkansas students are doing better now than they would have been doing pre-LEARNS legislation,” Sanders told Fox News Digital on the day her office announced a “major breakthrough” on education following implementation of a 2023 Republican backed statewide education overhaul, known as the LEARNS Act.

The law also raised the minimum teacher salary from $36,000 to $50,000, created performance-based teacher bonuses, boosted literacy support, funded school safety initiatives, and banned critical race theory and classroom teachings related to critical race theory, gender identity, sexual orientation, and sexually explicit materials.

Arkansas public school students are seeing sharp gains on a new statewide exam, with proficiency rates rising more than 7% across all grades and subjects in just three years under the state’s conservative education reforms. Since 2024, student proficiency has increased by more than 7% and by more than 5% since 2025, according to the governor’s office.

MISSISSIPPI’S SCHOOL MIRACLE SHAMES FAILING CHICAGO LEADERS ON EDUCATION

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, governor of Arkansas, during a Bloomberg Television interview at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025.(Hollie Adams/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“We want our kids to do well,” Sanders said. “We love the fact that kids in Arkansas are learning, that they’re moving up. The growth and achievement that we’re seeing from our kids is exactly what we want to happen.”

In 2026, 42.2% of students met proficiency standards, up from 36.9% in 2025. Mathematics proficiency increased from 36.4% in 2024 to 44.2% in 2026, science proficiency rose from 35.6% to 44.0%, and English language arts proficiency climbed from 33.8% to 39.5%.

Students performing at the lowest levels also fell across all subjects, dropping from an average of 27.3% in 2025 to 23.1% in 2026. Reading performance among third-graders improved as well, with proficiency rising from 36% in 2024 to 43% in 2026.

Students in kindergarten through second grade, the first to learn under the state’s education reforms, exceeded 50% proficiency in nearly every subject and grade level, while maintaining upward momentum.

Sanders said transformational reform is driven by better teaching and a unified focus on student needs, saying “a comprehensive aligned approach” makes a difference.

“Not any one thing, but it’s the collective process of really transforming the way that we approach education,” Sanders said. “Realizing that every single kid can learn when given the right environment, when given the right tools, and letting failure not be an option.”

TEXAS’ LARGEST SCHOOL DISTRICT SEES TEST SCORES SOAR AFTER STATE TAKEOVER DESPITE RACISM CLAIMS

Arkansas public school students are seeing sharp gains on a new statewide exam, with proficiency rates rising more than 7% across all grades and subjects.(Getty)

Democrats in recent years, including former Vice President Kamala Harris and prominent teachers’ union officials, have targeted red-state education policies, but Sanders told Fox News Digital she hopes the education program sends a message across the country.

“I’m hopeful absolutely that red states will use what we’re doing here as a blueprint, but I also hope that blue states will look at the success that you’re seeing in places like Arkansas, Mississippi and others and try to follow suit because we want all kids to do well,” Sanders said.

“Seeing kids achieve and do better and be successful, that’s not a red state or blue state issue. That’s something everybody should care about.”

WHY AMERICA’S ONLY SCHOOL CHOICE SUPER PAC IS PUTTING SOME REPUBLICANS IN THE HOT SEAT

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders attends a natural disaster preparedness event with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., on June 10, 2025.(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Sanders said the results are “showing what works,” adding there is no need to “reinvent the wheel.”

“We know that raising the bar, providing those resources and support for our students, for our teachers, for our superintendents makes a difference,” Sanders said. “We’ve got a recipe here that’s working and absolutely hope it not only changes the conversation but frankly changes the system, changes the culture and education.”

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“The LEARNS Act was a bold, innovative, and comprehensive approach to improve education,” Jacob Oliva, secretary of the Arkansas Department of Education, said in a press release. “It was built on research, urgency, and the desperate need for change. These scores prove that listening to teachers, administrators, and parents wasn’t just valuable but also essential. The plan is working. Arkansas students are reading, learning, and benefitting.”

Kiera McDonald is a Production Assistant for Fox News Digital.

中国驻美大使谢锋当地时间星期三（6月17日）应邀出席美中贸易全国委员会2026年度庆典晚宴，并发表演讲。 （取自中国驻美国大使馆官网）

中国驻美国大使谢锋在美中贸委会庆典晚宴上说，中美正商谈300亿美元（388亿新元）对等降税安排，也希望美方能尽快解决中国企业的合理关切。

据中国驻美大使馆官网消息，谢锋当地时间星期三（6月17日）应邀出席美中贸易全国委员会2026年度庆典晚宴，并发表演讲。

谢锋指出，中国国家主席习近平同美国总统特朗普5月在北京举行了历史性、标志性会晤，不仅再次为中美关系发展指明方向，也为中美经贸合作带来多重利好。

谢锋介绍，一是确立中美关系新定位，为两国经贸合作提供了稳定预期；二是开启中美交往新进程，为两国经贸合作注入了积极动力；三是打造中美对话新平台，为两国经贸合作增强了机制保障。

他强调，历史反复证明，关税战、贸易战、科技战没有赢家，脱钩断链、小院高墙此路不通，封别人的门只会堵自己的路。中美作为世界前两大经济体，你中有我、我中有你是客观事实，合则两利、斗则俱伤是历史定论，相互尊重、和平共处、合作共赢才是光明大道。

对于中美关系发展的期待，谢锋提出，中美建设性战略稳定关系不是一句口号，不能光停留在文字上，而应变成两国各界相向而行的行动，不断拉长合作清单，持续压缩问题清单，坚决排除干扰和障碍。台湾问题、民主人权、道路制度、发展权利是中方四条红线，不容挑战，不能越界。

他相信，当中国的拉布布不必戴上所谓“强迫劳动”的帽子，当美国企业能够自由选择中国合作伙伴而不必担心泛国家安全化，中美关系新定位就具象化了。

谢锋提到，中美贸易理事会、投资理事会是新鲜事物，欢迎中美工商界建言献策，同两国政府形成合力，确保开好头、起好步，为中美经贸合作保驾护航、排忧解难。

他称，中美正商谈300亿美元对等降税安排。从中美贸易的体量看，完全可以把豁免单子拉得更长、规模范围做得更大，300亿翻倍或者加个零都不为过。

谢锋也希望美方尽快解决中国企业的合理关切，出口管制、双向投资限制、反垄断调查、涉军企业清单等“黑名单”不应被用作打压工具。

他认为，人工智能等新兴技术必须确保向善普惠、有序发展，不能放任自流、野蛮生长，不能“跑马圈地”、再设“铁幕”，更不能爆发“AI版星球大战”。中美作为全球领先的人工智能大国，完全可以优势互补、合作共赢。

澳大利亚南极局于6月18日发布的照片显示，一个野生动物小组正在评估赫德岛上南部象海豹大规模死亡的地点。 （法新社）

澳大利亚宣布，在西南部偏远地区发现首个疑似H5N1禽流感病例。

路透社报道，西澳大利亚州农业部长贾维斯星期五（6月19日）说，在勒格兰角国家公园（Cape Le Grand National Park）发现的候鸟褐贼鸥（brown skua）禽流感病毒检测呈阳性，目前正在进行检测以确认病毒株。

贾维斯说：“我们非常重视这个疑似H5禽流感病例。如果确定为H5禽流感入侵，我们将迅速采取协调一致的全国应对措施。”

自2021年以来，高致病性的H5禽流感病毒株已在野生鸟类和哺乳动物中传播，造成数百万只动物死亡，并感染家禽和奶牛场内的动物，甚至一些农场工人。

澳大利亚是目前唯一尚未出现确诊病例的大陆，当局一直在为疫情的到来做准备，包括加强农场的生物安全措施、对滨鸟进行疾病检测、为易感物种接种疫苗以及制定应对方案。

延伸阅读

美加州北象海豹首现H5N1禽流感
泰国清迈72只老虎染疫死亡 致疫来源不明

环境部长瓦特发布的声明中说：“如果疫情得到证实，这无疑将是一个非常令人担忧的进展，但澳大利亚过去几年一直在为此做好准备。”

贾维斯说，预计将于星期六（20日）公布确认已死亡的褐贼鸥是否感染禽流感的检测结果。她补充说，在同一地区还发现一只患病的巨鹱（giant petrel），目前正在进行禽流感检测。

翻新不到两周 美国林肯纪念堂倒影池开始脱漆

2026年6月19日 17:32 / 联合早报

美国林肯纪念堂倒影池池底藻类大量繁殖，导致池水变绿。图为6月18日，国家公园管理局的员工和承包商使用吸尘器清除池底的绿藻。 （法新社）

（华盛顿综合电）美国林肯纪念堂倒影池翻新后，于6月6日正式重新开放。然而，仅12天后，池底油漆已开始剥落。

美国政府星期二（16日）往池里倒入大量过氧化氢（hydrogen peroxide），但水体仍大面积爆发水藻，池水变回浑浊的暗绿色。

通过长满藻类的绿色池水可见，林肯纪念堂倒影池底新铺设的密封防水层多处出现裂口。（法新社）

美国总统特朗普此前公开批评这种水色“肮脏不堪、令人作呕”，于是耗资约1400万美元（约1810万新元）开展大规模翻新，以“先进纳米气泡水”等方式杀灭藻类，并主推铺设一款“国旗蓝”防渗衬层。但竣工不到两周，新铺设的密封防水层多处就出现裂口。

负责管理国家广场，倒影池所在地的国家公园管理局尚未回复路透社的置评请求。负责翻新工程的弗吉尼亚州大西洋工业涂料公司也未作回应。

有游客看到倒影池中的“脏水”后告诉路透社：“我觉得我们的资源应用在更有意义的地方。”

这项修复工程一开始便引发巨大争议。批评者抨击工程未公开招标，并称修复成本不断上升，他们也质疑特朗普与承包商之间的关系。

非营利组织美国文化景观基金会还提起诉讼，指林肯纪念堂倒影池涂上蓝漆是亵渎这个地标。

White House delays release of US voting machine study as midterms near

2026-06-19T10:04:07.221Z / https://www.reuters.com/world/white-house-delays-release-us-voting-machine-study-midterms-near-2026-06-19/

WASHINGTON, June 19 (Reuters) – White House officials have for months delayed the release of a U.S. government report that outlines what it describes as significant vulnerabilities in the ​nation’s voting machines ahead of the November midterms, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

The report, produced by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, concludes that voting ‌machines could be further safeguarded by, for example, updating their software, the sources said. It does not say the vulnerabilities have led to votes flipping, but examines security gaps in how the machines are used during U.S. elections.

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Some White House officials have argued the report could undermine voter confidence, particularly among Republicans. Others have said they do not believe the report goes far enough in supporting President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, the three sources said. Some Democrats said privately they ​worried Gabbard’s probe into voting machines would be used by the administration to push states to use paper ballots.

Several court cases filed by Trump’s lawyers failed to prove voter fraud in the 2020 ​presidential race.

The sources were granted anonymity to discuss internal administration deliberations.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who launched an investigation into the voting machines and searched for evidence ⁠to support Trump’s false election fraud claims, steps down on Friday. Stepping in as interim director is federal housing regulator Bill Pulte. Trump has said he wants Pulte to investigate “rigged elections” during his time at ODNI.

It ​is unclear what Pulte plans to do with the report. He has been briefed on efforts by the agency to investigate flaws in voting machines, including the unreleased report, according to two of the sources.

Democrats and some analysts ​warn of possible interference by the Trump administration in the midterm elections, which analysts expect to deliver losses for Republicans.

Officials inside ODNI and experts who advised the agency advocated in meetings with White House officials that the administration begin fixing the flaws late last year in time to complete the process, which requires extensive coordination with states, before the midterms.

Asked about the delay in releasing the report, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement that the administration “continues to offer assistance to state and local ​election officials, including through the FBI and CISA, to ensure the security and integrity of all machines used in American elections.” CISA is the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

ODNI spokesperson Olivia Coleman said Gabbard has taken “actions within ​her authorities” to “support the President’s directive to secure our elections — which includes identifying vulnerabilities in our critical infrastructure.”

Pulte did not respond to a request for comment.

REPORT PART OF ADMINISTRATION ELECTIONS EFFORT

Some of the vulnerabilities detailed in the ODNI report have ‌long been known ⁠to prior administrations, said one former senior Biden administration official and two of the other sources. The vulnerabilities include machines running outdated software and having the ability to connect to the internet, which hackers could exploit.

All of the sources said they were unaware of any evidence of vote manipulation in U.S. elections.

The report is part of the administration’s broader effort to investigate potential fraud in U.S. elections following Trump’s signing of an executive order in February 2025 that aims to give the federal government greater control over U.S. elections.

Under the U.S. Constitution, states have authority over how elections are conducted.

Senior officials at the FBI and the Justice Department have spoken publicly about their probes ​into potential voter fraud across the country. The report, ​which draws on data from open-source and classified intelligence, ⁠would be the first to detail the administration’s work on voting machines.

It is one of two reports ODNI commissioned on voting machine flaws. The other report, which is also unpublished, was written last year by a government contractor, Mojave Research, which studied voting machines seized from Puerto Rico.

Both reports have been referenced in White House meetings ​in which officials debated whether there was enough evidence to prove Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

The Mojave report found no evidence ​the machines had been hacked, ⁠said two other sources.

NO AUTHORIZATION FROM WHITE HOUSE TO RELEASE REPORT

ODNI has briefed the White House on its findings over the last six months, but never received authorization to publish them, two of the sources familiar with the matter said.

The report says many states are using outdated systems, the three sources familiar with the matter said.

The intelligence agency used information from previously issued reports by CISA, the government cybersystems watchdog, that referenced hacking conferences in which the agency found some ⁠voting machines could ​be attacked through insecure hardware.

CISA has said it found no evidence that a foreign adversary interfered in the 2020 vote, and the ​agency joined other federal, state and local officials in declaring the election “the most secure in American history.”

ODNI and the White House have also not published the Mojave report. Mojave’s contract was terminated in October.

The software and coding vulnerabilities identified in that report led to the company’s ​recommendation that the administration implement an emergency remediation plan that would force states to immediately update their software systems. Two sources said that plan has not been implemented.

Why Republicans think they can save their House majority at the US-Mexico border

2026-06-19T10:00:25.535Z / CNN

• Republicans face an uphill battle to retain their House majority this November. But they see hope in flipping three border districts and defending two more in competitive races.
• The GOP is betting on strong challengers and record-low border crossings despite Trump’s declining Latino support.
• Democrats believe they will defend their seats and are targeting up to three Republican-held seats in response.

AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.

Republicans are in an uphill battle to save their narrow House majority, weighed down by an unpopular president and concerns about the cost of living amid the US war with Iran.

But they see glimmers of hope along the US-Mexico border.

The House Republicans’ campaign arm is working to flip three border districts in November while defending at least two more. They believe they have recruited a strong lineup of challengers and can lean on illegal border crossings hitting record lows under President Donald Trump, even as his administration’s deportation efforts have coincided with a sharp drop in Latino support.

In a midterm cycle with fewer likely competitive districts due to redistricting, what happens in as many as six competitive border districts could help determine who controls the House for Trump’s final two years in office. Texas Republicans redrew the state’s congressional map in part to target two longtime border Democrats, banking on GOP gains with Latino voters since Trump’s first run for office.

“Hispanics make up one of our most important voting blocs, and I think majority-Hispanic districts are some of our best pickup opportunities because we have made strong inroads with that community,” said Rep. Richard Hudson, the North Carolina Republican who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, in an interview with CNN.

Trump won 46% of Latino voters in 2024, according to CNN exit polling, up from 32% in 2020, a critical shift that helped him return to the White House. But Latinos nationally have soured on him since he returned to office. In an April survey from the Pew Research Center, Trump’s approval rating among Latino voters who supported him was down 27 percentage points from the start of his second term.

Republicans believe they can buck national headwinds at the border due to the strength of their recruited candidates, Trump’s inroads with Hispanic voters in the 2024 election, and voter concerns about returning to the border policies of former President Joe Biden’s administration.

Republicans’ ability to turn out Hispanic voters when Trump is not on the ballot is critical to the long-term health of the party. Hudson said it is a “challenge we’ve got to overcome” and that the NRCC’s “entire apparatus this time is built to solve that problem.”

“The GOP thinks that they can erase the damage they’ve caused just by propping up candidates with a Hispanic last name. They are dead wrong,” Bridget Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, responded in a statement, adding, “Latino voters are energized and showing up, and they will be the ones who deliver the House for Democrats.”

One of the Democratic incumbents the NRCC is targeting, Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas, acknowledged in an interview that border districts can be unique from the national political environment. Cuellar was an early and sharp critic of Biden’s handling of the border as unauthorized crossings hit record highs.

But Cuellar argued Republicans continue to operate off the “false premise” that Trump’s past success with Hispanic voters translates to midterm victories, especially given widespread pessimism about high costs.

“They have not gone down, and now you have another issue with immigration,” Cuellar said. “It’s not open borders, but it’s the overreach of ICE. And I told some of my Republican friends, ‘If Trump would’ve just said … I closed the border. I’m deporting the worst of the worst,’ and stop there, I think people in South Texas would’ve said, ‘Yeah, that’s the way.’ But he didn’t stop there.”

Cuellar will face Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina, the chief administrative official of the county that includes Laredo, the congressman’s longtime political base. Tijerina switched parties in late 2024, citing “the radicalization of the national Democrats.”

In a reflection of the leeway House Republicans are giving candidates on the economy, Tijerina praised Trump for launching strikes against Iran but acknowledged the war was “unpopular” and expressed confidence in the president’s ability to wrap it up soon.

“Sometimes we got to take a step back to take two steps forward,” Tijerina said, “and I think that’s what he’s trying to do, and I think that’s what people are seeing, and they understand that.”

Border districts that REPUBLICANS SEE AS PICKUP OPPORTUNITIES

• New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District: Greg Cunningham is challenging Rep. Gabe Vasquez
• Texas’ 28th Congressional District: Tano Tijerina is challenging Rep. Henry Cuellar
• Texas’ 34th Congressional District: Eric Flores is challenging Rep. Vicente Gonzalez

BORDER DISTRICTS THAT DEMOCRATS SEE AS PICKUP OPPORTUNITIES

• Texas’ 15th Congressional District: Bobby Pulido is challenging Rep. Monica De La Cruz
• Arizona’s 6th Congressional District: JoAnna Mendoza is challenging Rep. Juan Ciscomani
• Texas’ 23rd Congressional District: Democrat Katy Padilla Stout and Republican Brandon Herrera will face off for Rep. Tony Gonzales’ seat

Republicans are betting on candidates such as Eric Flores, a former federal prosecutor running against Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez in Texas’ 34th Congressional District.

Hudson credited Trump with backing Flores early in his primary and helping him sail past former Rep. Mayra Flores, who is not related. National Republicans soured on Mayra Flores after she ran against Gonzalez in 2022 and 2024 and lost both times.

The NRCC doubled down on its commitment to the district earlier this month when it opened an office in Harlingen.

“This election is simple,” Eric Flores said at the office opening. “I proudly wear the Republican jersey, and he proudly claims to be ‘the right kind of Democrat’ — voting for the left woke agenda.”

Republicans are hoping to dent Gonzalez’s moderate profile with messaging about the border under Biden. One anti-Gonzalez ad cites a 2021 interview on CNN in which he was asked about then-Vice President Kamala Harris’ meetings in Central America to study the “root causes of migration” — work that caused critics to label her Biden’s “border czar.”

“I feel fully confident that the vice president is on the right track,” Gonzalez said then.

Gonzalez has responded by taunting Flores as a “Trump lapdog” who will not stand up to the administration.

“My district is struggling under the weight of disastrous Republican policies coming out of Washington, which are denying families health care and driving up prices on everyday necessities like gas, food and housing,” Gonzalez said in a statement. “Eric Flores blindly rubber-stamps this Administration’s policies like a paid-for lapdog, all in exchange for a financed campaign to the detriment of South Texans’ quality of life.”

Rep. Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico, who represents a district stretching from Albuquerque south to the border, won his last reelection by 4 points even as Trump carried his district by 2. At a recent event in Washington, Vasquez said the economy is the “unifying link” for voters who split their tickets.

“A lot of folks that thought President Trump was going to be this great businessman, that was going to improve the economy, that was going to change the status quo … are also those folks whose doors I knocked on,” Vasquez said at WelcomeFest, an annual gathering for centrist Democrats.

Greg Cunningham, a former undercover cop who investigated crime along the border, is the GOP nominee against Vasquez. Cunningham said it was important for Republicans to level with voters about the state of the economy, but like Tijerina, he backed Trump’s war as worthwhile for national security.

“I actually applaud the president for doing the right thing instead of the politically expedient thing,” Cunningham said,adding that he believes the war will end soon and that oil prices will come down.

Hudson, the chair of the House GOP campaign arm, said Republicans should “acknowledge that folks are struggling out there” but also remind voters what the economy was like under Biden.

Hudson said candidates can say that “This election is a choice: Do you want to go back to the way it was three years ago, or do you want to let us continue to work to make your lives better?”

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is officially targeting two districts along the border — the seats held by Reps. Monica De La Cruz and Juan Ciscomani. But some Democrats also want to flip Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, which opened after Rep. Tony Gonzales announced he would not seek reelection after admitting he had an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide.

Republicans have nominated Brandon Herrera, a conservative activist and firearm reviewer on YouTube. The Democrats advanced attorney Katy Padilla Stout.

A top national Democratic recruit in Texas’ 15th District is Bobby Pulido, a Tejano music star running against De La Cruz.

Pulido speaks openly about being more culturally conservative than most Democrats. He talks about owning 11 AR-15s — his oldest son is named Remington after the Remington 700 bolt-action gun — and has chastised his party for prioritizing “social justice” issues over a more “aspirational” economic message.

Pulido said at WelcomeFest that South Texans “have become disillusioned with parties” and that he often hears from people that “‘I just want you to fight for me and for us. I don’t want your loyalty to be with your party. And will you break with your party if it means defending us?’”

Pulido has had to answer questions about his relationship with Frankie Caballero, a former bandmate previously convicted of a child sex crime. Pulido’s campaign has said he was not aware of Caballero’s status as a sex offender and that his managers fired Caballero when they learned in 2021.

Leading Democrats have continued to tout Pulido’s story. Rep. Suzan DelBene, the chairwoman of the DCCC, told CNN on Friday that Pulido was part of a crop of candidates who are “authentic, independent voices for their communities.”

Amid Pulido’s challenge, De La Cruz has sought some daylight with the Trump administration on immigration enforcement, floating new protections for migrant workers who have been targeted by deportation raids. And in March, she helped secure the release of Antonio Gámez-Cuéllar, a high school mariachi student who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement along with his family after a regular check-in with immigration officials.

De La Cruz said in a statement that South Texans want immigration enforcement that goes after criminals, “not families working through the system the right way.”

“I’ve been very direct with leadership about that,” she said, “and I’m going to keep fighting for folks who follow the law and contribute to our community.”