World
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.
World
Investors brace for a bigger backlash from Middle East war
World
Tel Aviv analyst shelters from 30 missile sirens in 48 hours, says Iran ‘won’t recover’
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The past 48 hours in Tel Aviv have been unlike anything seen before, a leading security analyst has said, as sirens blared amid missile threats following Operation Epic Fury and U.S.-Israeli strikes in Iran.
“We are facing a biblical event — nothing less,” Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies and the Misgav Institute, told Fox News Digital, speaking from his shelter in the city.
Like many Israelis, Michael said he had spent hours in reinforced rooms during the ongoing barrage, adding that he was “very experienced in this.”
“But this all requires time and determination, and I do hope that Trump will also have them both,” he said, speaking shortly after the president released a video message stating that the military operation would continue “until all of our objectives are achieved.”
Explosions from projectile interceptions by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system over Tel Aviv. (JACK GUEZ / AFP via Getty Images)
“Trump is the only one who can make the change — and that change will impact the entire region and the international order for years to come,” Michael added.
As of Sunday, Tel Aviv remained under a state of emergency following Iranian missile attacks that caused casualties and widespread damage.
According to The Associated Press, Iranian missile and drone strikes have killed approximately 11 Israeli civilians and wounded dozens more in retaliation for the U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran.
Shrapnel from missile impacts damaged at least 40 buildings in Tel Aviv, and authorities reported at least one death in the area from falling debris.
The Philippine Embassy in Israel confirmed the death of a Filipino national after a missile strike hit Tel Aviv on Saturday.
TOMAHAWKS, B-2 STEALTH BOMBERS AND ATTACK DRONES POUND OVER 1,000 IRANIAN TARGETS IN 24-HOUR BLITZ
People take shelter as Iran launched missiles and drones towards Israel following the US-Israeli attacks. ( Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“We enter our shelter once the siren is heard and stay there until the Home Front Command announces that we can leave,” Michael said.
“Usually, it is about 20 to 30 minutes — unless there are further sirens during our stay. Since yesterday morning, it has happened around 30 times.”
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog also visited an impact site in Tel Aviv Sunday, delivering a message of resilience.
“The people of Israel and the people of Iran can live in peace. The region can live in peace. But what undermines peace time and again is terror instigated by this Iranian regime,” Herzog said.
EXILED IRANIAN CROWN PRINCE SAYS US STRIKES MARK ‘BEGINNING OF THE VERY END’ FOR REGIME
Israeli emergency service officer walks past building debris at the scene of a Iranian missile attack. (Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP via Getty Images)
Following the reported killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and roughly 40 senior Iranian officials, Iran formed a provisional leadership council.
Iran named Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, President Masoud Pezeshkian and Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i to lead roles.
“The Supreme Leader did not complete the necessary groundwork regarding his own succession,” Michael added.
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“Pezeshkian will face very troubling challenges due to their heavy losses, severe disruptions to control and command systems, and the massive bombing and attacks across Iran, including Tehran,” he said.
“Even if this regime doesn’t collapse, it will never be able to reconstitute itself, recover or return to its previous position,” Michael added.
World
Israel FM says Europe too divided, slams Spanish PM
Israeli minister Gideon Sa’ar said Europe “does not have unified position” on what role it should play in Iran as European ministers sought to establish a joint approach Sunday.
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As Israel and the United States conducted a joint military strike on Iran, leading to the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Europe was kept on the sidelines.
EU member states did not participate in the operation and, in some cases, they were not informed prior as it is customary among strategic allies.
Asked whether Israel sought to keep Europe on the margins, Sa’ar said internal divisions within EU member states had kept them out of critical exchanges of operational details, unlike the United States, which the minister described as his country’s greatest ally.
“In Europe, you have all kinds of approaches,” he told Euronews. “You have countries like the Czech Republic which is strongly supporting this operation and then you have Spain, which is standing with all the tyrants of the world.”
On Saturday, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez was among the most critical voices in Europe, suggesting the US-Israeli strikes on Iran risk plunging the region into total war.
“We reject the unilateral military action of the United States and Israel, which represents an escalation and contributes to a more uncertain and hostile international order,” Sánchez said Saturday. The Spanish PM reiterated that message on Sunday.
“We urge for de-escalation and call to respect international law in all conflicts,” Sánchez added. “You can be against a heinous regime, like the Iranian regime, while also rejecting a military intervention that is unjustified, dangerous and outside of international law.”
Sa’aar said Israel considers the operation “fully justified” citing the right to self-defense from a regime that “has called for the destruction of Israel” and lashed at the Spanish prime minister for sending an “anti-Israeli, anti-American message.”
“Read the statement, they are standing with Iran!” he added.
When asked if any of his European counterparts had manifested an interest in joining the military operation or provide support on the ground, Sa’ar said he held multiple exchanges with European ministers over the weekend and suggested that “if others want to join, they will know have to convey the message.”
On Sunday, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen appeared to back regime change in Iran in line with Israel and the US, saying that the “risk of further escalation is real. This is why a credible transition in Iran is urgently needed” in comments on Sunday.
Sa’ar told Euronews said the strategic strikes and the elimination of Khamenei alongside top regime commanders could “create the conditions to weaken the regime enough to allow the Iranians to take their future into their own hands”.
“The future leadership of Iran should be determined by the Iranian people through free elections. Our only requirement is that whoever comes to power in Iran must not pursue the destruction of Israel,” he said.
Watch the full interview on Euronews from 8pm CET
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