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President Donald Trump escalated his war against elite US universities Tuesday with a threat to strip Harvard’s tax-exempt status if the country’s most famous educational establishment refuses to submit to wide-ranging government oversight.Harvard stands out for defying Trump, in contrast to several other universities and a string of powerful law firms that have folded under intense pressure from the White House in its crackdown on American institutions.The threat of a major tax bill comes after Harvard already lost $2.2 billion in federal funding on Monday.Trump said non-profit Harvard “should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity” if it does not submit to his demands for the college to change the way it runs itself, including selection of students and authority for professors.Tax-exempt status is “totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST,” he added in the post on his Truth Social network.Trump and his White House team have justified their pressure campaign on universities as a reaction to what they say is uncontrolled anti-Semitism and support for the Palestinian militant group Hamas.Their allegations are based on controversy at protests against Israel’s war in Gaza that swept across campuses last year.Columbia University in New York — an epicenter of the protests — stood down last month and agreed to oversight of its Middle Eastern department after being threatened with a loss of $400 million in federal funds.The White House has also strong-armed dozens of universities and colleges with threats to remove federal funding over their policies meant to encourage racial diversity among students and staff.The White House has cited similarly ideological goals in its unprecedented crackdown on law firms, pressuring them to volunteer hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of legal work to support issues that Trump supports.- Harvard defiant -Harvard, the oldest and wealthiest university in the United States, is now the most prominent institution to resist Trump’s ever-growing bid for control.The Trump administration is demanding that a wide range of Harvard departments come under outside supervision for potential anti-Semitism. It also seeks to require “viewpoint diversity” in student admissions and choice of professors.Harvard President Alan Garber said the school would not “negotiate over its independence or its constitutional rights.””Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government,” he wrote.The standoff likely sets up a long-running, high-profile fight.Hard-line presidential advisors like Stephen Miller depict universities as bastions of anti-conservative forces that need to be brought to heel — a message that resonates strongly with Trump’s hard-right anti-elite base.For Trump’s opponents, the Harvard refusal to bend marks a chance to draw a line in the sand against an authoritarian takeover.”Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions — rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom,” former president Barack Obama wrote on X. “Let’s hope other institutions follow suit.”The Harvard newspaper, “The Crimson,” applauded Garber’s defiance, saying “Harvard sent its clearest, most courageous message to date: Our values aren’t for sale.”However, The Crimson warned, “Harvard cannot stand alone.””Harvard faced a difficult choice: Lose billions in federal funding or sacrifice its centuries-old soul. It chose right. Now here’s hoping our peers follow suit.”

US President Donald Trump’s showdown with the judicial system will be in the spotlight Tuesday at a hearing on the fate of a migrant who was wrongly deported to El Salvador.The Trump administration admitted that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was living in the state of Maryland and married to a US citizen, was deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador due to an “administrative error.” It has yet to facilitate his return despite multiple court orders.Trump said in a post on his Truth Social network Monday that Abrego Garcia is “an MS-13 Gang Member and Foreign Terrorist from El Salvador.”But Abrego Garcia’s family has continued to proclaim his innocence, and Judge Paula Xinis — before whom the Tuesday hearing will be held — has said she had seen no evidence Abrego Garcia was a gang member.She has directed the government to take “all available steps to facilitate” his return “as soon as possible.”The conservative-dominated US Supreme Court has also held that the administration was required to “facilitate” Garcia’s return and to ensure that he be treated as if he had never been wrongly deported.Trump and his administration have repeatedly clashed with the courts since he returned to office in January, criticizing rulings that curb the president’s policies and power and attacking judges who issued them.”No District Court Judge, or any Judge, can assume the duties of the President of the United States. Only Crime and Chaos would result,” Trump said on Truth Social last month.- ‘Alive and secure’ -Government attorneys last week rejected Xinis’s order to provide an update on Abrego Garcia’s status by Friday, saying that “foreign affairs cannot operate on judicial timelines.”The Trump administration has since partially complied with the judge’s directives, providing a statement from a State Department official saying that Abrego Garcia is “alive and secure” in the Salvadoran prison.But it has given no information on measures taken or planned to aid his return.The case represents the only time the administration has acknowledged wrongly deporting anyone, though the Justice Department subsequently suspended the lawyer who made that concession, saying he had failed to vigorously defend the government position.The case has drawn significant political attention, with Chris Van Hollen, one of Maryland’s two US senators, saying he will travel to El Salvador to discuss Abrego Garcia’s release if he is not freed.Shortly after Trump’s inauguration for a second term, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele made the extraordinary offer to take in prisoners from the United States in exchange for a fee of $6 million, which the US president accepted.Bukele on Monday, sitting next to Trump at the White House, rejected calls to repatriate Abrego Garcia, saying: “The question is preposterous…. I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.”Trump meanwhile told Fox Noticias in a new interview that he would also “love” to send Americans who commit violent crimes to the notorious El Salvador mega-prison.”I call them homegrown criminals — the ones that grew up and something went wrong and they hit people over the head with a baseball bat and push people into subways just before the train gets there,” Trump said.

Disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s retrial on rape and sex assault charges began Tuesday, forcing survivors who helped fire up the “#MeToo” movement to prepare to testify against him once more.Weinstein’s 2020 conviction by a jury was overturned last year by an appeals court that ruled that the way witnesses were handled in the original New York trial was unlawful.The voiding of the jury’s verdict by the New York Court of Appeals was a setback to survivors of the #MeToo movement against sexual violence and the promotion of justice for them.Weinstein was wheeled in to court wearing a dark blue suit, and adjusted his tie as he took his seat at the defense table while the trial lawyers spoke to the judge.Judge Curtis Farber said he expected presentation of evidence to last five to six weeks.”I am hopeful the trial will be over by the end of May,” he said.Several dozen prospective jurors indicated they felt they could not give Weinstein a fair trial because of what they knew about the case.The onetime Miramax studio boss was charged with the sexual assault of former production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006, the rape of aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013, and a new count for an alleged sexual assault in 2006 at a hotel in Manhattan. Haleyi and Mann testified in the earlier trial, sharing graphic accounts of their interactions with Weinstein.Lindsay Goldbrum, a lawyer for the unnamed woman who brought the new complaint, told reporters outside court that “she had the honor of representing an incredible woman.””They are going to ensure Weinstein is held accountable for his heinous crimes against women,” she said.”The fact they are going to testify again is testimony to their bravery.”Weinstein, 73, said he hopes the case will be judged with “fresh eyes,” more than seven years after investigations by the New York Times and the New Yorker led to his spectacular downfall and a global backlash against predatory abusers.Weinstein is serving a 16-year prison sentence after being convicted on separate charges in California in 2023 for raping and assaulting a European actor a decade prior.- ‘Fry Harvey’? -The producer of a string of box office hits like “Sex, Lies and Videotape,” “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love,” Weinstein has battled health issues.”It’ll be very, very different because of the attitude of New York City, New York state and, I think, the overall country,” said his lawyer Arthur Aidala.”Five years ago, when you guys were here, there were protests. There were people chanting: ‘Fry Harvey, he’s a rapist’… I think that, overall, has died down,” he said, adding that he hoped jurors would try the case on its merits.Aidala separately told Fox 5 Monday that Weinstein had several ailments, including a “horrible infection in his mouth, his throat — and he’s struggling to speak, and when you’re about to go on trial you need to communicate with your lawyer.”Weinstein has never acknowledged any wrongdoing and has always maintained that the encounters were consensual.Accusers describe the movie mogul as a predator who used his perch atop the cinema industry to pressure actors and assistants for sexual favors, often in hotel rooms.Since his downfall, Weinstein has been accused of harassment, sexual assault or rape by more than 80 women, including actors Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Lupita Nyong’o and Ashley Judd.In 2020, a jury of New Yorkers found Weinstein guilty of two out of five charges — the sexual assault of Haleyi and the rape of Mann.But the conviction and the 23-year prison sentence were overturned in April 2024.In a hotly debated four-to-three decision, New York’s appeals court ruled that jurors should not have heard testimonies of victims about sexual assaults for which Harvey Weinstein was not indicted.The three survivors of Weinstein’s alleged crimes are expected to testify once again.”I’m going on jury duty — I hope I don’t get that (trial),” said a woman smoking a cigarette outside the courthouse.

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that China has gone back on a major Boeing deal, after a news report that Beijing ordered airlines not to take further deliveries of the US aviation giant’s jets.Trump’s comments on social media followed a Bloomberg news report about the halt. The report also said that Beijing requested Chinese carriers to pause purchases of aircraft-related equipment and parts from US firms.”Interestingly, they just reneged on the big Boeing deal, saying that they will ‘not take possession’ of fully committed to aircraft,” said Trump in a Truth Social post, referring to China as trade tensions flared between the world’s two biggest economies.But he did not provide further details on the Boeing pact he was referring to.Although Trump has slapped new tariffs on friend and foe since returning to the presidency this year, he reserved his heaviest blows for China — imposing additional 145 percent levies on many Chinese imports.Trump took aim at Beijing again on Tuesday, saying on Truth Social that China did not fully fulfil an earlier trade deal. He appeared to be referencing a pact that marked a truce in both sides’ escalating tariffs war during his first term.The US president said China bought only “a portion of what they agreed to buy,” charging that Beijing had “zero respect” for his predecessor Joe Biden’s administration.Trump also vowed to protect US farmers in the same post, noting that farmers were often “put on the Front Line with our adversaries, such as China,” when there were trade tussles.Since the start of the year, Trump has imposed steep duties on imports from China, alongside a 10 percent “baseline” tariff on many US trading partners.His administration recently widened exemptions for these tariffs, excluding certain tech products like smartphones and laptops from the global 10 percent tariff and latest 125 percent levy on China.But many Chinese imports still face the total 145 percent additional tariff, or at least an earlier 20 percent levy that Trump rolled out over China’s alleged role in the fentanyl supply chain.In response, Beijing has introduced counter tariffs targeting US agricultural goods — and later retaliated with a sweeping 125 percent levy of its own on imported American products.China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to AFP queries on the aircraft deliveries, and Boeing has declined to comment on the Bloomberg report.Boeing shares were around 1.5 percent lower on Tuesday morning.

The US State Department is expected to propose an unprecedented scaling back of Washington’s diplomatic reach, multiple news outlets reported Tuesday, shuttering programs and embassies worldwide to slash the budget by almost 50 percent. The proposals, contained in an internal departmental memo said to be under serious discussion by senior officials, would eliminate almost all funding for international organizations such as the United Nations and NATO.Financial support for international peacekeeping would be curtailed, along with funding for educational and cultural exchanges like the Fulbright Program, one of the most prestigious US scholarships.The plan comes with President Donald Trump pressing a broader assault on government spending, and a scaling back of America’s leading role on the international stage.But the American Foreign Service Association called the proposed cuts “reckless and dangerous” while former US ambassador to Moscow Michael McFaul decried a “giant gift to the Communist Party of China.”The memo says the State Department will request a $28.4 billion budget in fiscal year 2026, beginning October 1 — $26 billion less than the 2025 figure, according to The New York Times.Although it has little to say about humanitarian aid, programs tackling tropical disease, providing vaccines to children in developing nations and promoting maternal and child health would go, the Times reported.USAID — the sprawling development agency eyed for closure by Trump and Musk — is assumed by the memo’s authors to have been fully absorbed into the State Department, said The Washington Post.Only the Republican-controlled Congress — which needs Democratic votes to pass most laws — has the authority to sign off on the cuts.But the proposals will likely loom large in lawmakers’ negotiations over the 2026 budget.Government departments were facing a deadline of this week to send the White House their plans for cuts, but the State Department has yet to make any public announcements. It is not clear if Secretary of State Marco Rubio has endorsed the April 10 memo, but he would need to sign off on any cuts before they could be considered by Congress. The document earmarks 10 embassies and 17 consulates for closure, including missions in Eritrea, Luxembourg, South Sudan and Malta, according to politics outlet Punchbowl News. Five consulates earmarked for closure are in France while two are in Germany, Punchbowl reported. The list also includes missions in Scotland and Italy.In Canada, US consulates in Montreal and Halifax would be downsized to “provide ‘last-mile’ diplomacy with minimal local support,” the website reported, citing the document.US missions to international bodies such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the UN’s children’s fund, UNICEF, would be merged with the diplomatic outposts in the city where they are located.AFP contacted the State Department for comment but there was no immediate response.

President Donald Trump stepped up his extraordinary threats to send Americans to foreign jails, saying Tuesday he would love to deport “homegrown” US citizens who commit violent crimes to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador.Trump raised the idea in talks on Monday with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele — the self-proclaimed “world’s coolest dictator” who has already taken illegal migrants from the United States into his country’s jails.But the 78-year-old Republican doubled down on the idea of sending US citizens to El Salvador too, as he further tests the limits of fundamental US rights.”I call them homegrown criminals,” Trump said according to excerpts of an interview with Fox Noticias, a Spanish-language program being broadcast later Tuesday.”The ones that grew up and something went wrong and they hit people over the head with a baseball bat and push people into subways,” he added.”We are looking into it and we want to do it. I would love to do it.”On Monday, Trump said during his meeting with Bukele in the Oval Office that he had asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to examine the possibility of sending Americans to El Salvador.The iron-fisted Bukele made the extraordinary offer to take in prisoners from the United States shortly after Trump’s inauguration for a second term, in exchange for a fee of $6 million.Trump has already sent more than 250 migrants there, mostly under a centuries-old wartime law that deprives them of due process — but he has increasingly started talking about sending US citizens too.Trump’s administration already faces pressure over the case of a migrant who was mistakenly deported from the United States to El Salvador under the Bukele deal.Bukele on Monday dismissed the “preposterous” idea of returning the man — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a father who was living in the US state of Maryland — to the United States.The US Supreme Court has ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return from the notorious jail after the White House said he was deported after an “administrative error.”Trump officials insist he is an illegal migrant and a member of El Salvador’s notorious MS-13 gang, despite never having been convicted.

Social media titan Mark Zuckerberg took the stand for a second day Tuesday in a landmark US antitrust trial where his conglomerate Meta is accused of taking over Instagram and WhatsApp before they could become competitors.The federal court trial in Washington has dashed Zuckerberg’s hopes that the return of President Donald Trump to the White House would see the government let up on the enforcement of antitrust law against Big Tech.The case could see the Facebook owner forced to divest of Instagram and WhatsApp, which have grown into global powerhouses since their buyout.It was originally filed in December 2020, during the first Trump administration, and all eyes were on whether the Republican would ask the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to stand down.Zuckerberg, the world’s third-richest person, has made repeated visits to the White House as he tried to persuade the president to choose settlement instead of fighting the trial.As part of his lobbying efforts, Zuckerberg contributed to Trump’s inauguration fund and overhauled content moderation policies. He also purchased a $23 million mansion in Washington in what was seen as a bid to spend more time close to the center of political power.Central to the case is Facebook’s 2012 billion-dollar purchase of Instagram — then a small but promising photo-sharing app that now boasts two billion active users.An email from Zuckerberg cited by the FTC showed him depicting Instagram’s emergence as “really scary,” adding that is “why we might want to consider paying a lot of money for this.”In his first day of testimony Monday, Zuckerberg downplayed those exchanges as early talk before plans for Instagram came together.But the FTC argues that Meta’s $19 billion WhatsApp acquisition in 2014 followed the same pattern, with Zuckerberg fearing the messaging app could either transform into a social network or be purchased by a competitor.Meta’s defense attorneys counter that substantial investments transformed these acquisitions into the blockbusters they are today.They also highlight that Meta’s apps are free for users and face fierce competition.FTC attorney Daniel Matheson said in opening remarks on Monday that “they decided that competition is too hard and it would be easier to buy out their rivals than to compete with them.”Meta attorney Mark Hansen countered in his first salvo that “acquisitions to improve and grow an acquired firm” are not unlawful in the United States, saying that is what Facebook did.A key part of the courtroom battle will be how the FTC defines Meta’s market.The US government argues that Facebook and Instagram are dominant players in apps that provide a way to connect with family and friends, a category that does not include TikTok and YouTube.But Meta disagrees.”The evidence at trial will show what every 17-year-old in the world knows: Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp compete with Chinese-owned TikTok, YouTube, X, iMessage and many others,” a spokesperson said.

US Vice President JD Vance hailed his country’s transatlantic alliances, striking a more positive note, but in an interview urged European states to show greater independence.”I love Europe … I love European people,” Vance told news and opinion website UnHerd on Monday in rare favourable comments about the European Union and Britain.”It’s not good for Europe to be the permanent security vassal of the United States,” Vance said, echoing his previous rebukes of EU states for alleged security and economic dependence on the United States.”I don’t want the Europeans to just do whatever the Americans tell them to do. I don’t think it’s in their interest, and I don’t think it’s in our interests, either.”In the past few weeks, US President Donald Trump has upended the global economic order by imposing and then partially walking back sweeping global tariffs.From the war in Ukraine to claims over Greenland, Trump’s policies are testing relations with long-standing American allies.Just weeks after taking up his post, Vance made headlines after launching a withering attack against Europe on culture war issues at the Munich Security Conference.According to Vance, it is “good for the United States” if Europe is more “independent” — allowing countries to “stand up” to US foreign policy decisions.”I think a lot of European nations were right about our invasion of Iraq,” said the vice president. “If the Europeans had been a little more independent, and a little more willing to stand up, then maybe we could have saved the entire world from the strategic disaster that was the American-led invasion of Iraq.”Seeking to allay fears of further trade wars and economic insecurity, Vance said Trump’s policies “will lead to a lot of positive trade relationships with Europe”.However, he said that would be trickier to achieve for some countries like Germany, which he said was “heavily dependent on exporting to the United States.”But the vice president was singing praises of the UK, saying “there’s a good chance that… we’ll come to a great agreement that’s in the best interest of both countries”.British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been seeking to appease the new administration and secure a favourable trade deal — with King Charles III inviting Trump for a rare second state visit.”The president really loves the United Kingdom. He loved the queen,” said Vance. “He admires and loves the king. It is a very important relationship.”

Elite US university Harvard was hit with a $2.2 billion federal funding freeze on Monday after rejecting a list of sweeping demands that the White House said was intended to crack down on campus anti-Semitism.The call for changes to its governance, hiring practices and admissions procedures expands a list Harvard received on April 3, which ordered officials to shut diversity offices and cooperate with immigration authorities for screenings of international students.In a letter to students and faculty, Harvard president Alan Garber vowed to defy the government, insisting that the school would not “negotiate over its independence or its constitutional rights.”Trump’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism responded with a statement announcing the $2.2 billion hold in multi-year grants, plus a freeze on $60 million in government contracts. “Harvard’s statement today reinforces the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation’s most prestigious universities and colleges — that federal investment does not come with the responsibility to uphold civil rights laws,” it said.”The disruption of learning that has plagued campuses in recent years is unacceptable. The harassment of Jewish students is intolerable. It is time for elite universities to take the problem seriously and commit to meaningful change if they wish to continue receiving taxpayer support.” Campuses across the country were rocked last year by student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, with some resulting in violent clashes involving police and pro-Israel protests.Trump and other Republicans have accused the activists of supporting Hamas, a US-designated terrorist group that led the deadly October 7, 2023 attack against Israel that sparked the conflict.The Department of Education announced in March that it had opened an investigation into 60 colleges and universities for alleged “anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination.”Garber’s letter came after the administration placed $9 billion in federal funding to Harvard and its affiliates under review, making its first demands.On Friday, the government sent Harvard a much more detailed list, including demanding an “audit” of the views of students and faculty.- ‘Raging anti-Semitism’ -Harvard generated an operating surplus of $45 million on a revenue base of $6.5 billion in the last financial year.Garber said the school was “open to new information and different perspectives” but would not agree to demands that “go beyond the lawful authority of this or any administration.””No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” Garber said.Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who was lauded by Trump last year for her aggressive questioning of universities over anti-Semitism, called Harvard “the epitome of the moral and academic rot in higher education.”The New York firebrand, a vocal supporter of Israel and US Jewish causes, accused the university of tolerating “raging anti-Semitism.”But the Ivy League university drew praise from liberals, including former president Barack Obama, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.”Congratulations to Harvard for refusing to relinquish its constitutional rights to Trump’s authoritarianism,” Sanders posted on social media platform X.”Other universities should follow their lead.” MIT also announced Monday that it had filed a lawsuit to halt the Department of Energy’s termination of grants which support “the work of nearly 1,000 members of our community,” said university president Sally Kornbluth.Harvard’s response to the White House’s demands diverged from the approach taken by Columbia University, the epicenter of last year’s pro-Palestinian protests.The Trump administration cut $400 million in grants to the private New York school, accusing it of failing to protect Jewish students from harassment as protesters rallied against Israel’s Gaza offensive.The school responded by agreeing to reform student disciplinary procedures and hiring 36 officers to expand its security team.As well as the funding cut, immigration officers have targeted two organizers of the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia: Mahmoud Khalil, whom the government is seeking to deport, and Mohsen Mahdawi, who was arrested Monday as he attended an interview to become a US citizen.

Chinese security officials said Tuesday they had implicated three US “secret agents” in cyberattacks during February’s Asian Winter Games in the northeastern city of Harbin, offering a reward for information on the alleged spies.Harbin police released a statement on Weibo accusing three US National Security Agency (NSA) agents of attacks on “key information infrastructure”.It named the individuals as “Katheryn A. Wilson, Robert J. Snelling and Stephen W. Johnson”, working in the NSA’s Office of Tailored Access Operations, an intelligence-gathering unit on cyberwarfare.China’s computer virus watchdog said this month it had recorded more than 270,000 foreign cyberattacks on information systems related to the 9th Asian Winter Games in Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province, held from February 7 to 14.Attacks targeted the event’s information release and entry-exit management systems, as well as card payments and local infrastructure between January 26 and February 14, it said.Two-thirds of those attacks came from the United States, the watchdog said at the time.China’s foreign ministry on Tuesday condemned what it called “malicious cyber behaviour” and said it had “expressed its concerns to the US in various ways”.”We urge the US to stop unwarranted smears and attacks against China”, ministry spokesman Lin Jian said, adding that Beijing would take “necessary measures” to protect its cybersecurity.The US Embassy in Beijing did not respond to a request for comment.The Harbin police statement also accused the NSA agents of targeting Chinese companies including Huawei, which has faced US sanctions since 2019 over national security concerns.And state news agency Xinhua reported that teams had “uncovered evidence” implicating the University of California and Virginia Tech in the “coordinated campaign” on the Asian Winter Games.Officials said they would reward any person who could provide clues about the three individuals and “cooperate with public security organs in arresting” them.They vowed to “seriously crack down on cyberattacks and the theft of state secrets against China by foreign forces”.The statement did not specify what kind of reward it was offering, but China has for years offered residents cash for submitting tip-offs.Those found guilty of espionage can face life in prison or execution under Chinese law.In March, China’s ministry of state security said it had sentenced to death a former engineer for leaking state secrets to a foreign power.