Expansion of Federal Financial Aid

Good morning World leaders look to Trump for action on Ukraine. Politico tells us whether the president is listening The big talk going into G seven has been about what can Europe do to pressure Russia to get to the negotiating table with Ukraine The massive expansion of federal financial aid that many Americans don't know about And a new Grammy category honors one of the globe's biggest genres It's Wednesday jun seventeenth. I'm Gidian Resnik in forhamet to Bassu. This is Apple News todayay. As G seven leaders gather in France, Allies have been pressing President Trump to break the deadlock in Russia's war in Ukraine, days after he announced a deal with Iran. The conflict on Europe's doorstep has now lasted longer than the First World War. And some leaders saw the deal with Iran as a chance to refocus diplomatic energies there The big ask from European leaders going into Tuesday's conversations in France was, hey, Mr. President, we'd really like to ramp up the economic pressure. What is it that the US can do here? Meghan Meserley is a White House reporter for Politico. We don't have any final decisions from the president, but he has expressed an openness to reinstating these sanctions on Russian oil, which is going to come as good news to the US's European allies Trump lifted those sanctions after the Strait of Hormz shut, but that move was never supposed to be permanent Yesterday, he suggested they could return sooner we'll be able to do that because the oil is now flowing So we put we took sanctions off Because obviously we're not looking to impadee the US. so We're in a position to do that soon. On Sunday, he spoke to Russia's President Vladimir Putin That got some G seven leaders worried that Trump could undermine their recent efforts. Because he didn't exactly say what came out of those conversations or what the content of his conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin was. And so that was what was causing some trepidation going into Tuesday's meetings with President Zelensky is what role is President Trump going to play here? And is it going to be beneficial or hurtful to sort of the European cause here But he's also had conversations with Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky who told Reuters the G seven leaders had discussed sanctions and all agreed that Russia had lost momentum Putin has to stop this war And I have unanimity from all the leaders and EU presidents The trash is not winning losing a lot of people And they have to make a deal as quick as possible So far at the summit, Trump has signaled no desire to ramp up U. S. support for Ukraine, publicly at least. He said the U.S had quote nothing to do with it beyond selling weapons Ukraine gets its financial support from Europe now It continues to rely on the U.S. for intelligence and military hardware it buys. Trump's comments have seesaw back and forth in a second term, leaving world leaders guessing as to how he might approach each summit. But I think usually when we see President Trump engaging here, we tend to see him sort of play both sides here. And one point, he'll appear to be favoring Ukraine more and favoring Ukraine's European allies more. And the next, he'll be saying, okay, but the Russian president makes a good point here. this is maybe something that Europe should be considering Politica reports that Europe is preparing to move ahead with their support, whether Trump joins them or not The EU is finalizing a new package of sanctions to clamp down on Russia's shadow oil fleet and to keep price caps in place on Russian crude Messley said that for some Europeans, there was one upside to Trump's distance on the issue EU diplomat told one of my colleagues that it wasn't the worst thing having him be distracted with Iran. That meant that he was not sort of meddling in the day to day affairs of Europe Now that the president has the brain space to turn to Ukraine, it could be both potentially helpful but also potentially detrimental here for Europe At the summit Trump noted that the conflict was thousands of miles away from the U. S But European countries got a big reminder of just how much closer they were to Russian threats recently Days after the UK seized a Russian oil tanker off its coast, a Russian warship fired warning shots near a civilian yacht, sailing on the English channel Last night in Georgia, Representative Mike Collins advanced in a Republican Senate runoff after getting an endorsement from President Trump He will face incumbent Senator John Ossooff in what promises to be one of the most important races in November In the governor's race, Trump's pick failed to beat businessman Rick Jackson, who had the support of other Republicans Beyond the actual winners of the Georgia primaries, part of the focus in the state going forward will be how people vote. That's because Tuesday's primaries could be the last time that a kind of ballot featuring a QR code is used When we vote in Georgia, we use a touchscreen voting machine And when we're done voting, you print the ballot. On that ballot that's printed out, there is a QR code. Kate Brumback is a reporter for the Associated Press in Atlanta When you're done voting, you go and you put your ballot into a scanner and the scanner reads the QR code to tally the boats. The criticism was that since people can't read QR codes, voters couldn't be sure the code itself actually reflected the choices they had made Now Georgia lawmakers put themselves in a bit of a bind to come up with a solution. They decided two years ago now that they did not want to continue with this QR method. and they voted to ban it on ballots The problem is in the two years since that ban was passed, the Georgia legislature hasn't come up with a replacement. And their deadline to do so is quickly approaching on july first Today they're going to meet for a special session where this will be a key agenda item. Frumback says they might just extend the deadline and give themselves more time to figure out a solution before the twenty twenty eight elections Georgia's current election system was first used in the twenty twenty primaries. And when President Trump lost to former President Biden in the general election that year, Trump and his supporters began to claim that the voting machines were at fault. There were people who said that the voting machines either switched or deleted votes. There was no evidence of that. There were a lot of conspiracy theories about these dominion voting machines, including that they had ties to the former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez None of those conspiracy theories were ever proven to be true Dominion Voting Systems, which manufactures those machines, won a nearly eight hundred million dollars settlement from Fox News for lies promoted by the network about its machines and their trustworthiness. Yet, there have been other questions raised about the process There have been a lot of critics of these machines, people who have said that voters can't be sure that the QR codes accurately reflect their choices because a person can't read a QR code But turning to a hand counting method, for example, is not such an easy solution As UGA professor Charles Bullock explained to a local CBS affiliate We had five million ballots cast in twenty twenty. You can just imagine the amount of time this is going to take if it has to be done. By hand Whatever the special legislative session decides, it will be up to the one hundred and fifty nine counties that run elections in Georgia to implement it And it's unclear that an entirely new system could be put into place before November. In just a few weeks, the most dramatic expansion of federal financial aid for higher education in fifty years will begin to roll out. Hundreds of millions of dollars will be available. problems. Americans largely don't know about it and it's so expansive that getting it off the ground will be tough program that's been a long time in the making and a very short time in the planning. and the result of that is that we can expect it to start slow. That's John Marcus with the Education Newsite Heckinger Report who told us about the changes coming soon to Pelgrants Pel Grant traditionally goes to a student that's seeking a degree, a bachelor's or an associate degree In particular, students from low income households Unlike student loans, they don't have to be paid back And for the first time in fifty years, beginning this summer, Students will be eligible for Pell grants who are taking non degree training programs. These are programs that lead to a certificate or a license or a certification which can open the door to a career in some high demand fields, like nursing, truck driving, welding, and more Students awarded these grants could receive around two thousand two hundred dollars on average. Congress approved the change to Pell grants less than a year ago when it passed in President Trump's sweeping tax and spending law And this has been a goal of policymakers ross the political spectrum for a very long time, there's been this sort of sense that if students who go to college or community college can get money from the federal government, why can't students who want to go into the trades where there's significant demand But Marcus says the law didn't leave much time for states and schools to implement the policy There are strict rules to qualify for funding Programs have to provide data that shows most students complete their training and go on to earn enough money to justify the cost of attending That's designed in part to prevent abuses that have plagued some short term job training programs in the past The rules are good. The rules are the result of a history in which some short term degree programs really didn't pay off and didn't really lead to any benefit for students who, in some cases went into debt to earn credentials that really had no value But many states, at least a quarter of them, do not have systems in place to track and collect this data And Marcus says it's been difficult for states to decide which programs should be eligible for the money and which trades to designate as high demand Many of them are way behind in this process. As a result of that, the number of programs that will likely be eligible for short term Pal this summer will be a lot smaller than what might ultimately be the case This summer, only a few hundred programs may meet the eligibility requirements But according to the Department of Education, as many as twenty eight thousand programs could eventually qualify. including many in trades, business, and health And at least a hundred thousand students could eventually benefit. That is, if states and schools can successfully get the word out to let them know they're eligible And that's another challenge for institutions and states and to help people connect with the money and the programs that can legitimately get them better jobs or higher pay Here are a few other stories we're following today. The FBI says it foiled an alleged attack planned against the UFC White House event on Sunday According to federal authorities, a group plann to use drones and explosives to hit buildings during the fight target people with snipers as they fled. The Justice Department said that five people had been arrested and that the investigation was ongoing. They revealed that the group communicated primarily on signal and charging documents suggest they had expressed a range of political and conspiratorial grievances relating to the government Vice President JD Vance said yesterday that the planned attack did not get close to being realized and that the alleged suspects were not even in town President Trump's White House ballroom could be costing taxpayer money after all That's according to a Waston Post report which has been looking into construction invoices It reports that a detailed summary contractors prepared for the White House estimated its total costs at six hundred million dollars, with more than half coming from public money Back in March, President Trump vowed the project would be donor funded and was quote, taxpayer free The White House wouldn't answer reporter's questions but said generous patriots for funding the project to the tune of four hundred million dollars Meanwhile, just a mile away, another one of Trump's projects that far exceeded its original budget has a problem The reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial was drained and painted American flag blue for the two hundred fiftieth anniversary celebrations But now it has a new hue Days after the project was completed, algae returned turnurning the pool green And finally, the Grammy Awards announced they're adding five new categories next year. One of them will honor a genre that has a stranglehold on millions of music bands across the world Wh Bring a friend That's BTS with maybe the most famous of all K pop songs, Dynamite Among the categories added to music's biggest night will be Asian pop music performance The recording Academy says the award was created to mark the breadth and depth of Asian pop music and its influence around the globe Other new categories include Best Latin Song, which comes after Bad Bunny made history by becoming the first ever Spanish language artist to take home Album of the Year The next Grammys are set to air in February. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening to the news app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next The Atlantic reports on the retirement of the Boeing seven hundred and forty seven. and how the iconic airliner once represented the apex of American innovation If you're listening the podcast app, you can follow Apple News Plus narrative to find that story, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow