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Trump administration reviews billions in Harvard contracts and grants
The administration of President Donald Trump has announced it will undertake a “comprehensive review” of federal contracts with Harvard University, as part of its crackdown on anti-Semitism in the United States.
But critics fear the prestigious Ivy League university is the latest target in a purge of pro-Palestinian voices.
On Monday, three departments under Trump’s control — the Department of Education, the General Services Administration and the Health and Human Services Department — issued a press release saying that $255.6m in Harvard contracts and $8.7bn in multi-year grants are slated to come under the microscope.
“Harvard has served as a symbol of the American Dream for generations,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement.
“Harvard’s failure to protect students on campus from anti-Semitic discrimination — all while promoting divisive ideologies over free inquiry — has put its reputation in serious jeopardy.”
The announcement follows similar actions taken against another private Ivy League campus, Columbia University in New York, which saw millions in contracts revoked.
The Ivy League — and Columbia in particular — were an epicentre of pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the US, after Israel launched a war against Gaza in October 2023.
Student encampments on Columbia’s lawn in April and May 2024 inspired similar protests around the country, as campus activists denounced school ties to Israel and called for an end to human rights abuses in Gaza.
Human rights groups and experts at the United Nations have accused Israel of using tactics consistent with genocide in the Palestinian territory.
The organisers behind the campus protesters have largely rejected accusations of anti-Semitism, arguing that being critical of Israel’s government is not the same as spreading anti-Jewish hate. They have likened attempts to smear their protests as a form of censorship, designed to dampen free speech.
But critics have accused the protesters of creating an unsafe learning environment. There have also been isolated reports of anti-Jewish attacks, including the alleged assault of one 24-year-old Columbia student who was hanging pro-Israel flyers in October 2023.
Still, the protests have been, by and large, peaceful. And free-speech experts have denounced the Trump administration as blowing accusations of anti-Semitism out of proportion in order to exercise control over top universities.
A list of demands
In the case of Columbia University, the Trump administration stripped the school of $400m in grants and contracts on March 7, effective immediately. It accused Columbia of allowing “relentless violence, intimidation, and anti-Semitic harassment” on its campus.
A week later, on March 13, the Trump administration issued a list of demands Columbia would need to comply with to earn back the $400m.
They included banning face masks, ensuring law enforcement could arrest “agitators” on campus, and adopting a controversial definition of anti-Semitism that could include criticism of Israel.
The Trump administration also called for the Department of Middle East, South Asian and African Studies to be placed under the control of an external “receivership“.
Critics denounced the measures as an attempt to corrode academic freedom. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) called the administration’s move “a blueprint to supercharge campus censorship”.
“The letter goes far beyond what is appropriate for the government to mandate and will chill campus discourse,” the organisation wrote in a statement.
“Civil rights investigations should not be handled through ad hoc directives from the government.”
But the US has long been an ally of Israel’s since the country’s founding, and the Trump administration has backed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ongoing campaign in Gaza, even proposing that the US “take over” and “own” the Palestinian territory — turning it into a “riviera of the Middle East”.
Critics said Trump’s proposal amounted to a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians who call Gaza home.
On March 22, Columbia University agreed to comply with most of Trump’s demands.
Law school speaks out
The Trump administration touted those concessions as a victory in its news release announcing the review of Harvard’s federal contracts.
It also indicated that Harvard has signalled it would cooperate with Trump’s priorities.
“We are pleased that Harvard is willing to engage with us on these goals,” Sean Keveney of the Health and Human Services Department said in the statement.
But the announcement that Harvard was the next school to be singled out comes on the heels of an open letter from its law school, one of the oldest in the nation.
More than 90 professors signed the document, which denounces actions taken to “punish people for lawfully speaking out on matters of public concern”.
While the letter does not mention Trump or the pro-Palestinian protesters outright, its publication comes after students have been arrested for deportation as the result of their activism.
The letter does, however, make note of attempts to “threaten law firms and legal clinics” for their legal work or prior government services — a reference to actions Trump has taken.
Trump, for example, has issued executive orders punishing firms like San Francisco’s Perkins Coie LLP, which represented his 2016 election rival Hillary Clinton, and he has fired career prosecutors at the Department of Justice.
The Harvard Law professors warned this violates the constitutional right to free speech — and creates an atmosphere of fear.
“Whatever we might each think about particular conduct under particular facts, we share a conviction that our Constitution, including its First Amendment, was designed to make dissent and debate possible without fear of government punishment,” the letter reads.
“Neither a law school nor a society can properly function amidst such fear.”
Still, the Trump administration pledged “swift action” if Harvard failed to comply with its demands.
“We mean business,” Secretary McMahon posted on social media.
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The United Kingdom on Monday blamed an Iran-linked proxy group for a string of antisemitic arson attacks targeting British Jewish sites, prompting the government to ban Tehran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and impose sweeping new powers to crack down on foreign-backed sabotage.
British officials said the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right (IMCR) publicly claimed responsibility for seven attacks this year targeting Jewish and Israeli-linked locations, as well as a Persian-language media outlet critical of Iran’s government. According to the U.K. government, members of the IRGC’s elite Qods Force were “almost certainly” directing the group’s operations across Europe.
The attacks included fires at synagogues, Jewish charity ambulances and other Jewish community sites in London. No injuries were reported.
DESANTIS ANNOUNCES PLANS TO USE NEW STATE LAW TO TARGET DOZENS OF ALLEGED TERRORIST GROUPS
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosts a reception with the Jewish community to discuss efforts to tackle antisemitism, at Downing Street, in London, July 13, 2026. (Reuters/Suzanne Plunkett/Pool)
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the new measures send a clear message to foreign adversaries seeking to sow violence.
“We will never let Britain be a playground for states who want to spread fear, division and violence on our streets,” Starmer said. “Anyone acting on behalf of those who threaten our national security should be in no doubt that there is no place for you in Britain.”
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer discusses efforts to tackle antisemitism at Downing Street in London, Monday, July 13, 2026. (Suzanne Plunkett/Pool Photo via AP)
If Parliament approves the designations later this week, anyone carrying out acts of sabotage — including arson — on behalf of the IRGC, IMCR or Russia’s GRU Volunteer Corps could face life imprisonment. Supporting or assisting the groups could carry prison sentences of up to 14 years.
The British government said the new authorities, created under the National Security (State Threats) Act 2026, will make it easier for prosecutors to secure convictions because they will no longer have to prove a direct foreign government connection in every case.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood accused both Tehran and Moscow of relying on criminal proxies to conduct hostile operations inside the United Kingdom.
“Iran and Russia are using proxies and thugs to do their dirty work on our shores,” Mahmood said. “I have rapidly designated three groups so those working for them will be tracked down and put behind bars.”
ISRAEL FORTIFIES BORDER WITH JORDAN AS IRAN SEEKS NEW TERROR PATH
The government said IMCR emerged online earlier this year and has also claimed responsibility for attacks on synagogues in Belgium and the Netherlands. British intelligence officials say Iran-backed proxy groups have increasingly recruited members of criminal organizations to carry out sabotage, intimidation and physical attacks across Europe, often targeting Jewish communities and Iranian dissidents.
Charred remains of ambulances belonging to Hatzola, a Jewish community organization, which were set on fire in an incident that the police say is being treated as an antisemitic hate crime, in London, March 23, 2026. (Hannah McKay/Reuters)
According to the U.K., MI5 identified at least 20 potentially lethal Iran-backed plots against individuals in Britain over the past year. The government has already sanctioned more than 550 Iranian-linked individuals and entities and has pledged £250 million ($334,662,500) over three years to strengthen security for Jewish communities, including increased protection for synagogues, schools and community centers.
Britain also designated Russia’s GRU Volunteer Corps, saying the group acts as a proxy for Russian military intelligence by recruiting individuals online to conduct sabotage, arson and other hostile operations.
The crackdown comes just weeks after two Romanian men were sentenced to prison for stabbing a journalist working for a Persian-language television station in London, an attack a British judge said was carried out on behalf of the Iranian state.
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Iran did not immediately comment on Monday’s announcement, according to The Associated Press.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Published on
The European Union has sanctioned VK Company, which dominates Russia’s online sphere, for colluding with the Kremlin to identify critics of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and curtail access to independent sources of information.
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VK Company runs VKontakte, the country’s most popular social media site. Often described as “the Russian Facebook”, it has an estimated 70 million users.
The decision, taken on Monday by foreign ministers, points the finger at VK Company and an associated firm for developing and managing Max App, which is state-backed and comes pre-installed on all phones and tablets sold in Russia.
Citing experts, Brussels argues that Max App has “extensive surveillance features” that Russian authorities use to track online communications, gather data, monitor address books, identify user location and install autonomous updates.
The imposition of Max App has helped the state crack down on competitors, such as WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram, and on VPNs, the private networks that Russians employ to bypass increasingly stringent state restrictions on the Internet.
“VK has cooperated with Russian authorities in their repressive actions, including by providing them with data concerning users of its services who posted content criticising Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, or other content banned by the authorities,” the legal text says.
“VK has also participated in the government-ordered ban on the use of VPNs, through which Russian internet users could previously access independent content.”
Monday’s decision introduces an asset freeze and prohibits EU companies from making funds available to VK Company. In a statement to Russian state-owned media outlet TASS, the firm said that its applications and services remained “available to users as normal”.
Besides VK Company, the EU also sanctioned Citadel, VAS Experts and Norsi-Trans, three companies that provide hardware and software for the so-called System of Operative Investigative Measures that Russian authorities use to track online communication and target journalists, opposition figures, minority groups and ordinary citizens.
The restrictions were adopted under a special regime dedicated to punishing human rights violations.
Separately, the EU sanctionednine individuals and four entities accused of carrying out “malicious” cyber attacks against several member states.
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