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Federal Cuts Prompt Johns Hopkins to Cut More Than 2,000 Workers

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Federal Cuts Prompt Johns Hopkins to Cut More Than 2,000 Workers

Johns Hopkins University, one of the country’s leading centers of scientific research, said on Thursday that it would eliminate more than 2,000 workers in the United States and abroad because of the Trump administration’s steep cuts, primarily to international aid programs.

The layoffs, the most in the university’s history, will involve 247 domestic workers for the university, which is based in Baltimore, and an affiliated center. Another 1,975 positions will be cut in 44 countries. They affect the university’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, its medical school and an affiliated nonprofit, Jhpiego.

Nearly half the school’s total revenue last year came from federally funded research, including $365 million from the U.S. Agency for International Development. In all, the university will lose $800 million in funding over several years from U.S.A.I.D., which the Trump administration is in the process of dismantling.

Johns Hopkins is one of the top university recipients of the funding that the administration is aiming to slash. And it appears to be among the most deeply affected of the major research institutions that are reeling from cuts — or the threat of cuts — to federal money that they depend on for research studies and running labs.

In a statement on Thursday calling it a “difficult day,” Johns Hopkins said it was “immensely proud” of its work on the projects, which included efforts to “care for mothers and infants, fight disease, provide clean drinking water and advance countless other critical, lifesaving efforts around the world.”

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In a statement last week describing Johns Hopkins’s reliance on federal funding, Ron Daniels, the university’s president said, “We are, more than any other American university, deeply tethered to the compact between our sector and the federal government.”

Of the school’s total operating revenue in 2023, $3.8 billion, or nearly half, came federally funded research. The Trump administration has said that it wants to make the government leaner and more efficient by, among other measures, dramatically cutting financial support for the program, which promotes public health and food security in low-income countries.

In ordering cutbacks in the agency, which amount to a 90 percent reduction in its operations, President Trump said that it was run by “radical left lunatics” and that is was riddled with “tremendous fraud.”

Critics of the decision, however, have said the cuts are ushering in a new era of isolationism that could prove to be dangerous. Sunil Solomon, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins, said the cuts would lead to a resurgence in the spread of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS.

“What true great nations do is help other nations, but now, it seems, we’re America first,” Dr. Solomon said.

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The administration has also sought to reduce the amount of money that the National Institutes of Health sends to university for research, cuts that have been blocked for now in the courts. If they go into effect, those cuts would reduce federal payments to Johns Hopkins by more than $100 million a year, according to an analysis of university figures.

The university, which receives about $1 billion a year in N.I.H. funding and is currently running 600 clinical trials, is one of the plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit challenging those cuts.

Separately, the Trump administration also has targeted specific schools for cuts. It slashed $400 million from Columbia’s budget last week based on accusations that it had failed to protect students and faculty from antisemitism.

Johns Hopkins and Columbia are on a list of 10 schools that the administration says are being scrutinized by an executive branch antisemitism task force. The administration has threatened to reduce federal funding for schools on the list, and others, that it views as being noncompliant with federal civil rights laws.

In addition to the more than 2,000 employees whose jobs have been eliminated, the university said that an additional 78 domestic employees and 29 international would be furloughed at reduced schedules.

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The cuts at Johns Hopkins involve programs funded by U.S.A.I.D. through which American universities have worked with global partners, largely to advance public health and agricultural research. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week that 5,200 of the agency’s 6,200 contracts had been canceled and that the remaining programs would be operated directly by the State Department, eliminating the need for U.S.A.I.D., which is under the State Department.

Research projects that are being eliminated include international work on tuberculosis, AIDS and cervical cancer, as well as programs that directly benefit residents of Baltimore.

Dr. Solomon, the epidemiologist, runs a $50 million, six-year program to improve H.I.V. outcomes in India. He said the budget cuts in his program alone would result in layoffs of about 600 people in the United States and India. The program had led to, among other things, the diagnosis of almost 20,000 people with H.I.V. through contact tracing.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Dr. Solomon said. “Stopping funding isn’t going to kill you today, but in six months you’re going to see an impact around the world.”

Dr. Judd Walson runs the department of international health at Johns Hopkins, which oversaw a five-year, $200 million program to diagnose and control tuberculosis in 20 countries funded by U.S.A.I.D.

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In Kampala, Uganda, he said, the program was the only way children were diagnosed.

“That’s just one example of how the sudden withdrawal of support is having real impacts on survival,” he said.

In addition to the loss of jobs at Johns Hopkins, he said, the loss of the programs will lead to a spike in communicable diseases worldwide.

What is essentially a shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. has had significant effects at universities around the country.

An organization called USAID StopWork, which is tracking the layoffs, said that overall, 14,000 domestic workers had lost their jobs so far, with thousands more anticipated.

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Research by the Federal Reserve shows that universities serve as major economic engines in many agricultural regions, from Iowa to Florida, meaning that the impact of the administration’s cuts to science research will be felt in both red states and left-leaning communities like Baltimore.

The elimination of a $500 million agriculture project called Feed the Future, which funded agriculture labs at 19 universities in 17 states, means many of those labs must shutter.

At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 30 people have lost their jobs at a Feed the Future lab that worked on improving soybean cultivation in Africa, according to Peter D. Goldsmith, a professor of agriculture who ran that laboratory.

At Mississippi State University in Starkville, Miss., a fisheries laboratory was shut down, according to Sidney L. Salter, a university spokesman, who did not disclose the number of jobs lost.

Economic ripple effects of the funding cuts are expected to spread through the Baltimore area. Johns Hopkins, which enrolls about 30,000 students, is also one of Maryland’s largest private employers.

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École des Sables, Africa’s Premier Dance School, Faces a Precarious Future

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École des Sables, Africa’s Premier Dance School, Faces a Precarious Future

Toubab Dialao came to the rescue. This small fishing village was already an unlikely haven for artists: In the 1970s, the Haitian artist Gérard Chenet, a political exile, had settled in the area and built a hybrid art center, Sobo Badè, which boasts a theater and space for artist residencies, as well as a hotel and restaurant.

“Step by step, my father brought a lot of international artists,” Ibrahima Jacques Chenet, Chenet’s son, said at Sobo Badè. Some stayed and opened other art spaces, earning Toubab Dialao a reputation as a cultural village, Chenet said.

After holding some intensives at Sobo Badè, Acogny and Vogt looked for a space of their own. Acogny sold a small apartment she owned in Paris and Vogt added his savings to secure the grounds of the École des Sables and build the sand studio. Yet developing the school further, and making it financially viable, proved daunting.

“We would hold workshops with dancers from 25 African countries,” Vogt said, “but we had to find ways to cover the costs, because African dancers often don’t have the money to pay for training.”

In the absence of funding from Senegal’s ministry of culture, help has mostly come from European and American foundations, as well as the European Union; the luxury brand Chanel has been a partner for the past two years. Over the years, the school was able to build bungalows to house students and artists on site, as well as a second studio. But the lack of resources directed to culture on the African continent is an issue for artists, Acogny said. (Earlier this week, the budget for the African Dance Biennial, set to open on April 29, was still around $47,000 short, according to Vogt.)

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Video: Which Instant Coffee Is Best?

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Video: Which Instant Coffee Is Best?

new video loaded: Which Instant Coffee Is Best?

We asked some of the most caffeinated people we know — New York Times journalists — to taste-test instant coffees, and they had a lot of opinions. Watch “The Daily”’s Rachel Abrams and writer at large Jim Rutenberg as coffee-testing experts to determine which instant coffees are the best.

April 21, 2026

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A Time of Growth for Museums for Children

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A Time of Growth for Museums for Children

This article is part of our Museums special section about how institutions are commemorating the past as they move into the future.


As kidSTREAM prepares to open in Ventura County, it joins a national wave of new children’s museums, expansions of existing institutions and a broadened lineup of programming aimed at young visitors.

Originally opened in 1963 as the Junior Museum of Oneida, the institution has relocated several times and reopened last May in a 14,000-square-foot space. A two-story climber anchors the main floor, allowing children to navigate ramps, platforms and woven rope pathways. The museum houses five themed galleries, including World Market, which introduces music, art and cultural traditions from around the world, and Let’s Experiment, devoted to STEAM-based learning through prism and light exploration, an animation station and other hands-on activities.

Founded by two mothers, Erin Gallagher and Meg Hagen, the museum opened last September in a former farm and garden center. They set out to establish a dedicated children’s institution to serve as an anchor for the community. The 6,400-square-foot space includes 12 exhibit areas focused on STEM exploration, art, engineering, imaginative play and sensory activities. It also offers family and after-school programs, as well as designated sensory-friendly hours. An additional 4,000 square feet of outdoor play space is expected to open in late spring.

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In March, the 90,000-square-foot museum expanded with the Gallery of Wonder, a 9,000-square-foot early childhood space designed for children from infancy to age 5. The gallery includes five interactive environments. Into the Woods invites climbing, swinging and fort building in a forest setting, while Under the Waves offers a softly lit ocean cove with sensory-focused light and sound where children can play with puppets. Viva Village centers on community life, encouraging children to role-play everyday helpers. Tot*Spot, reimagined as an oversized garden, caters to infants and toddlers, while the outdoor Treetop Terrace is a space for active play.

The museum debuted two permanent exhibits in October as part of a broader transformation. Galactic Builders is a 1,788-square-foot space-themed environment that invites children to design rockets, engineer rovers and explore physics concepts through hands-on exploration. SKIES is a quieter, sensory-focused space featuring reading nooks, a dedicated area to rest and recharge and immersive visuals of sunrises, sunsets and drifting clouds. Together, the additions expand the museum’s interactive footprint by more than 4,500 square feet and mark the first phase of a multiyear effort to update its learning environments for young visitors.

In November, the museum unveiled a $11.6 million expansion that doubled its footprint to more than 30,000 square feet. The addition includes three galleries, two of which house permanent exhibits. The Sunflower Gallery is a hands-on environment where children can explore the prairie ecosystem and includes a two-story sunflower structure they can climb. The Hall of Bright Ideas celebrates creative Kansans with engineering-based activities. A third gallery will host traveling exhibitions, and the expansion adds three laboratory classrooms for STEAM programs and camps.

Conceived by a former preschool teacher and children’s cartoon artist, Mike Bennett, the Portland Aquarium opened last June as an animal-free, cartoon-style aquarium. Bennett said he wanted marine science to feel like “stepping inside a hand-drawn cartoon.” The 5,000-square-foot space showcases six ocean biomes, including the Wreck, focused on deep-sea carnivores and mysterious creatures, and the Open Ocean, highlighting some of the largest animals that swim in the seas. Throughout, visitors encounter illustrations of more than 100 marine species, including sea otters, jellyfish and great white sharks. Each child receives a guidebook created in collaboration with marine biologists to use throughout the galleries.

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