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A top US science official on Tuesday backed away from a bold promise made by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to reveal the cause of autism by September.Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, told reporters the timeline referred not to a discovery, but to the launch of a new research initiative — with no firm deadline for results.”We’re hoping that by September, we’ll have the call for proposals out, and we’ll have a competition among scientists across the country using a normal NIH process for selecting the proposals that win and get an award,” he said. Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic, has long promoted a debunked theory linking childhood vaccines to autism, and recently appointed an anti-vaccine activist who holds the same views to be a data analyst — a move critics say guarantees bias.Bhattacharya, however, said the study itself would conform to rigorous standards and would be evaluated through the normal NIH peer review process.He said the timeline for results was “hard to predict” but that his team was “cutting red tape” to remove any bureaucratic obstacles. “I would like to have a timeline within a year, where they start to put out the preliminary results or the results — we’ll see,” Bhattacharya said. Bhattacharya also confirmed a report by CBS News that the NIH was gathering private medical records from a number of federal and commercial databases to give the study statistical power, but insisted all the data would be anonymized. During his own Senate confirmation hearings, Bhattacharya, a physician-scientist and health economist known for opposing lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic, stated he does not “generally believe” there’s a link between vaccines and autism.The estimated prevalence of autism in children aged eight rose to one in 31 in 2022, according to a study published last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, compared to one child in 150 in 2000 — a trend the authors attributed to improved diagnosis methods.Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental condition that affects behavior, communication, learning, and social interaction. There is no single known cause, but a combination of genetic and environmental factors is likely involved, according to the World Health Organization.Over the past two decades, milder forms and related conditions have increasingly been grouped under the broader category of autism spectrum disorder, or ASD.

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday he had no plans to fire the Federal Reserve chief, in apparently conciliatory remarks after berating him and triggering market turmoil.Wall Street investors dumped US assets on Monday, with all three main indexes down after Trump took a series of swipes at Jerome Powell, head of the US central bank.The president had criticized Powell for warning that the White House’s sweeping tariffs policy would likely reignite inflation.”I have no intention of firing him,” Trump said Tuesday.”I would like to see him be a little more active in terms of his idea to lower interest rates — it’s a perfect time to lower interest rates.”If he doesn’t, is it the end? No.”Trump’s recent outbursts against Powell had fanned concern that he would oust him, and White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett said last week the president was looking at whether he could do so.Trump has repeatedly said he wants rate cuts now to help stimulate economic growth as he rolls out his tariff plans, and had threatened to fire Powell if he does not comply.”If I want him out, he’ll be out of there real fast, believe me,” Trump said Thursday.- Inflation fears -Powell has said he has no plans to step down early, adding that he considers the bank’s independence over monetary policy to be a “matter of law.”Many economists agree that the administration’s tariff plans — which include a 10 percent “baseline” rate on imports from most countries — will put upward pressure on prices and cool economic growth.Asked about the possibility that the US executive branch tries to fire Powell before the end of his term, European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde told CNBC on Tuesday she hoped this was “not on the table.The president does not have direct authority to fire Federal Reserve governors, but Trump could initiate a lengthy process to attempt to unseat Powell by proving there was cause to do so.Powell had earlier warned that Trump’s sweeping tariffs could put the Fed in an unenviable position of having to choose between tackling inflation and unemployment.Closing before Trump’s remarks, Wall Street stocks rebounded Tuesday after US officials were upbeat about trade talks with China.All three major US indexes rose following White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s comments that Trump was “setting the stage for a deal with China.”Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare put part of the rebound down to sentiment that Trump would not fire Powell, and instead was “simply setting him up now to take the blame in the event of an economic downturn.”

The trade standoff between Washington and Beijing is not sustainable, the US Treasury chief said Tuesday, as President Donald Trump predicted sky-high tariffs on many Chinese imports would come down “substantially.”Speaking at a closed-door event hosted by JPMorgan Chase, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the enormous tariffs the world’s two biggest economies placed on each other’s imports this year amounted to a reciprocal trade embargo, but that he expects de-escalation.Since Donald Trump’s White House return in January, the United States has slapped additional tariffs of 145 percent on many products from China.These include duties initially imposed over China’s alleged role in the fentanyl supply chain and later over practices Washington deemed unfair.On Tuesday, Trump acknowledged that 145 percent is a “very high” level, and that this will “come down substantially.””They will not be anywhere near that number,” he said, adding however that “it won’t be zero.” Beijing has responded to Washington’s latest salvo with sweeping counter-tariffs of 125 percent on US goods.Bessent told the JPMorgan event Tuesday that he expects a de-escalation in the near future, according to a person who was in the room.Such a development should bring markets some relief, he added at the event, which was not open to media.Wall Street’s major indexes jumped after a news report on Bessent’s comments at the event, which took place on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank’s Spring Meetings.- ‘Doing very well’ -Bessent said there is much to be done at the end of the day with Beijing. But he noted the need for fair trade and said that China needs to rebalance its economy.The Treasury chief stressed that the goal is not to decouple with China, noting that container bookings between both countries have slumped recently as trade tensions heated up.On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Washington is “doing very well in respect to a potential trade deal with China.””The president and the administration are setting the stage for a deal,” she added, noting that “the ball is moving in the right direction.”She said the feeling is that parties involved want to see a trade deal happen.As global finance ministers and central bankers converge in Washington this week, all eyes are on the progress of trade talks on the sidelines of the spring meetings as countries grapple with Trump’s new and wide-ranging tariffs.

Ukraine is ready to hold direct peace talks with Russia but only after a ceasefire is in place, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday amid new US pressure to end the three-year-old conflict.US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff is to go to Moscow this week, the White House said, and a US envoy was to take part in new talks with European officials in London on Wednesday.US media reports have said US President Donald Trump has proposed accepting that Moscow-annexed territory in Crimea be recognised as Russian and this will be discussed.”After the ceasefire, we are ready to sit down in any format,” Zelensky told journalists at a briefing a day before the key talks in London on a potential Ukraine settlement.Trump, who had promised to strike a Moscow-Kyiv deal within 24 hours of taking office, has failed in the three months since to secure concessions from Russian President Vladimir Putin.Trump said at the weekend that he hoped a peace deal could be struck “this week” despite no signs the two sides were close even to a ceasefire, let alone a long-term settlement.- No ‘rigid time frames’ -Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that the conflict was too “complex” to achieve a speedy ceasefire.”It is not worth setting any rigid time frames and trying to get a settlement, a viable settlement, in a short time frame,” he told state TV.White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt confirmed Witkoff would be travelling to Moscow, his fourth visit to Russia since Trump took office.”The negotiations continue. We’re hopefully moving in the right direction,” she said.Trump “has grown frustrated with both sides of this war, and he’s made that very known.”Moscow’s forces occupy around a fifth of Ukrainian territory and tens of thousands of people have been killed since the war started in February 2022.After rejecting a US-Ukrainian offer for an unconditional ceasefire last month, Putin announced a surprise Easter weekend truce. Fighting dipped during the 30-hour period but Russia launched fresh attacks on residential areas on Monday and Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said.Ukraine’s foreign ministry meanwhile called in China’s ambassador to raise “serious concern” over allegations that Chinese fighters were in the Russian army and Chinese companies were helping Russia make military hardware, the ministry said.Zelensky has said at least 155 Chinese were fighting with the Russian army — two of whom have been detained by Ukraine — and that he had “information” that China was supplying arms to Russia. China last week denied providing weapons.The foreign ministry summoned China’s envoy in Kyiv, Ma Shengkun, over the accusations and produced “evidence” to back the claims, the ministry said.- London meeting -Ukraine’s allies are expected to discuss a possible deal they could all get behind when they meeting in London on Wednesday, a senior Kyiv official told AFP.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will not attend the London talks due to scheduling issues, the State Department said, adding that US envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg would take part.European leaders are scrambling to work out how to support Ukraine should Trump pull Washington’s vital military and financial backing.Zelensky said his team’s “first priority” at the London talks would be “an unconditional ceasefire”.On Sunday he proposed a halt of missile and drones strikes against civilian facilities for at least 30 days.While saying he would “analyse” the idea, Putin threw doubt on it later by accusing Kyiv of using civilian facilities for military purposes.He held open the prospect of bilateral talks, though Peskov said there were “no concrete” plans to engage with Kyiv. “There is readiness from Putin to discuss this question,” he  said.”If we are talking about civilian infrastructure, then we need to understand, when is it civilian infrastructure and when is it a military target,” he added.- Russian attacks -Russia hit a residential area in the eastern Ukrainian city of Myrnograd with drones Tuesday, killing three people and wounding two, authorities said.One person was reported dead and 23 wounded after two aerial bombs pounded the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, the region’s governor said.Photos from Ukraine’s emergency services showed the outer walls of an apartment block blown open and a bloodied man on a stretcher, with bandages around his head and arms.Russian strikes wounded another six people in the southern city of Kherson and seven in Kharkiv in the northeast, officials said.The Russian army meanwhile claimed to have captured a village in the eastern Donetsk region, where its troops are advancing.Russia has advanced in recent months in southern and eastern Ukraine and recaptured much of Russia’s Kursk region, parts of which Kyiv seized last year and was hoping to use as a bargaining chip.There were no ongoing discussions on any new US aid packages with the Trump administration, Zelensky said.In Paris last week, Rubio presented Washington’s plan for ending the conflict, though both he and Trump warned that Washington’s patience was wearing thin and could lead it to withdraw.

President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday announced plans to ban synthetic dyes from the US food supply — a move welcomed by health experts and marking a rare point of bipartisan agreement in an otherwise sharply divided political climate.Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. has vowed to overhaul America’s food system under the banner of his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, and the push would phase out the eight approved artificial food dyes by the end of 2026.It builds upon a prohibition on Red Dye 3 by the government of former president Joe Biden but accelerates the timeline and also asks the National Institutes of Health to carry out comprehensive research on how additives impact children’s development.”For the last 50 years, American children have increasingly been living in a toxic soup of synthetic chemicals,” Food and Drug Administration commissioner Marty Makary said at a press conference, surrounded by young families and MAHA supporters. He cited studies linking synthetic dyes to conditions including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), diabetes, cancer, genomic disruption, gastrointestinal issues and moreKennedy, for his part, called the issue of dyes and additives more generally an “existential” threat. “When my uncle was president in the 1960s, we had the healthiest people in the world — and one of the basic assumptions of our country was that because we were robust people… that was responsible for our country being the land of the brave and the home of the free,” he said.The new plan is largely based on the food industry voluntarily complying, he added, but they have been receptive in talks.Of the eight synthetic dyes derived from petroleum, Yellow 5, Yellow 6 and Red 40 constitute the lion’s share of those in use, Peter Lurie, president and executive director of the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, told AFP.They are found in a range of products, from beverages and candies to cereals, sauces and dairy products. “None of them convey anything of any nutritional significance, and what they’re really there for is to mislead — to make food appear somehow redder, somehow bluer, somehow fruitier or more attractive than it is,” he said.”And the purpose of all that is to drive up sales, it’s not anything that benefits the American public.”- Bipartisan momentum -Momentum has been building at the state level. In March, Republican-leaning West Virginia enacted a broad ban on synthetic dyes, following California’s 2024 decision to restrict them in public schools.While Red Dye No. 3 was previously targeted for phaseout in foods and drugs by 2027 and 2028 respectively due to cancer concerns, the remaining dyes have been linked to behavioral issues such as attention deficit disorder in children.In Europe, these dyes are not banned outright — but the requirement to carry warning labels has led many companies to switch to natural alternatives.Kennedy’s stance on synthetic dyes aligns him, unusually, with mainstream scientific consensus — a departure from his controversial history of promoting vaccine misinformation, downplaying the nation’s worst measles outbreak in years, and suggesting bird flu should be allowed to spread naturally among poultry.Industry opposition may still emerge. Food manufacturers have historically lobbied against tighter regulations, but Lurie believes resistance may be more muted this time.”The question that industries are wrestling with now is whether or not to oppose this, and you know, the signs that I see are that they may just suck it up in the end,” said Lurie.He cited “tepid” statements made when Red 3 was banned and the limited response when Kennedy first warned he would be targeting dyes.”I think they’re ready to change,” said Kennedy. “They want clear guidelines, they want to know what they can and can’t do, and we’re going to give them that.”

Tesla reported a 71 percent drop in first-quarter profits Tuesday in results that lagged analyst estimates as Elon Musk’s automaker warned of a hit to demand due to “changing political sentiment.”The electric vehicle producer reported profits of $409 million following a drop in auto sales that analysts said reflected brand damage due to Musk’s work for the Trump administration.Revenues fell nine percent to $19.3 billion.The company retreated from its 2025 guidance, citing unpredictability over trade policy and demand.”Uncertainty in the automotive and energy markets continues to increase as rapidly evolving trade policy adversely impacts the global supply chain and cost structure of Tesla and our peers,” the company said.”This dynamic, along with changing political sentiment, could have a meaningful impact on demand for our products in the near-term.”On the positive side, Tesla said it was on track to launch new vehicles “including more affordable models” in the first half of 2025.The statement followed a report last week that the company planned to delay the launch. Analysts have cited a stale portfolio of vehicles as among the challenges facing the company.Musk is expected to speak later Tuesday on a conference call with investors and analysts, some of whom have called on the billionaire to announce a plan to exit the Trump administration in order to focus on Tesla.Musk, the world’s richest person, donated more than $270 million to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.Analysts warn of significant brand damage to Tesla from Musk’s leadership role in the “Department of Government Efficiency,” which has granted itself access to government databases with sensitive personal information and implemented thousands of job cuts.- Robotaxi on track -The shakeup to US government operations has led to questions about programs like the Social Security retirement benefit and the continuation of programs like hurricane forecasting.Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said it will be a “Code Red” situation if Musk remains at DOGE, noting that “Tesla’s stock has been crushed since Trump stepped back into the White House,” according to a note released earlier this week.In January, Tesla confirmed plans to unveil new, more affordable vehicles in the first half of 2025, a move that helped mute criticism that the EV maker’s lineup has gotten stale.But a Reuters report last week said Tesla was pushing back the launch of a lower-cost Model Y SUV by a “few months” for reasons that were unclear.Besides confirming the new vehicles as on time, Tesla also reiterated that a robotaxi launch was on track for June, according to its press release.Ives, who has implored Musk to significantly scale back his work on DOGE, said he must also map out a timeline and “hard facts” around the company’s ambitious autonomous driving and robotics ventures.Analysts at Morgan Stanley meanwhile said Tesla may also unveil restructuring efforts to cut costs in light of weaker profit margins due in part the heavy investments in new technologies.Tesla’s stock reaction will also be influenced by whether there is a “sense of increased attention from their CEO,” Morgan Stanley said.”Investors will be searching for any signs of Tesla’s CEO reprioritizing the efforts of Tesla vs. politically oriented endeavors,” Morgan Stanley said.Tesla shares were little changed in after-hours trading.

The World Health Organization chief said Tuesday that operations and jobs would be slashed as US funding cuts had left the UN agency with a budget hole of several hundred million dollars.”The sudden drop in income has left us with a large salary gap and no choice but to reduce the scale of our work and workforce,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told member states, according to a transcript of his remarks.The United Nations health agency has been bracing for President Donald Trump’s planned full withdrawal of the United States — by far its largest donor — next January.The United States gave WHO $1.3 billion for its 2022-2023 budget, mainly through voluntary contributions for specific projects rather than fixed membership fees.But Washington never paid its 2024 dues, and is not expected to pay its 2025 dues.This has left the WHO preparing a new structure, which Tedros presented to staff and member states on Tuesday.”The refusal of the US to pay its assessed contributions for 2024 and 2025, combined with reductions in official development assistance by some other countries, means we are facing a salary gap for the 2026–27 biennium of between $560 and $650 million,” he said.The lower end of that spectrum “represents about 25 percent of staff costs” currently, he said, stressing though that “that doesn’t necessarily mean a 25-percent cut to the number of positions”.He did not say how many jobs would be lost at the WHO, which employ more than 8,000 people around the world.- ‘Very painful’ -But he acknowledged that “we will be saying goodbye to a significant number of colleagues” and vowed to do so “humanely”.Tedros insisted that the most significant impact would likely be felt at the organisation’s headquarters in Geneva. “We are starting with reductions in senior management,” he said.”We are reducing the senior leadership team at headquarters from 12 to seven, and the number of departments will be reduced by (more than) half, from 76 to 34,” Tedros said.WHO’s regional offices would meanwhile be affected “to varying degrees”, he said, adding that some country offices in wealthier countries would likely be closed.”These are very painful decisions for all of us,” Tedros said.The WHO chief insisted the situation could have been worse.WHO member states agreed in 2022 to significantly increase membership fees and reduce the portion of WHO’s budget covered by less reliable and often earmarked voluntary contributions.”Without the increase, assessed contributions for the current biennium would have been $746 million,” he said, adding that instead, WHO expects to receive $1.07 billion in membership fees for 2026-27, “even without the US contribution”.Nonetheless, WHO needed to reduce its activities and recentre on its core functions, he said, even as he acknowledged that “many countries need our support now more than ever”.The US administration’s decision to virtually dismantle the US foreign aid arm, USAID, and freeze nearly all assistance, including to health projects worldwide, had made “very severe” impacts in developing countries especially, Tedros said.But WHO, he said, would now need to focus on helping countries “transition away from aid dependency to greater self-reliance”, he said.

The executive producer of “60 Minutes”, the storied US primetime current affairs show, resigned Tuesday blaming attacks on his independence in recent months as President Donald Trump has waged a legal battle against the program. The jewel in the crown of CBS News, owned by Paramount, the show has covered wars, US politics and consumer scandals since its first broadcast in 1968 but is now embroiled in a messy row with the president.”Over the past months, it has also become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it. To make independent decisions based on what was right for 60 Minutes, right for the audience,” Bill Owens, a veteran journalist on the show, wrote in an email to his team seen by AFP.”So, having defended this show — and what we stand for — from every angle, over time with everything I could, I am stepping aside so the show can move forward.”The show, which pulls around 10 million viewers weekly, is a leading target of Trump’s offensive against the media.At the end of October 2024, the Republican sued the program, accusing it of manipulating an interview with his Democratic rival Kamala Harris on October 7.CBS strongly refuted the allegations, which commentators have described as baseless.The program has continued to broadcast investigations critical of the Trump administration since his return to the White House.In response, Trump has called for its cancellation, while his billionaire advisor Elon Musk has said he hoped the team behind “60 Minutes” would receive long prison sentences.The row has intensified against a backdrop of CBS News’s parent company Paramount seeking to merge with Skydance, which must first be approved by FCC chief and Trump admirer Brendan Carr.Trump is seeking $20 billion damages from the network over the Harris interview, and while the prospect of a mediated settlement is often raised in media circles, Owens has reportedly vowed not to apologize if such a deal is struck.

President Donald Trump’s top diplomat Marco Rubio on Tuesday unveiled a restructuring of the US State Department that will cut positions and scale back human rights offices, saying the “bloated” organization was ideologically out of sync with the administration.Rubio billed the plan as a major shake-up in the State Department, long a bete noire for many US conservatives, although the outline was less drastic than drafts that have circulated — including one of which would have virtually wiped out day-to-day diplomacy in Africa.”The Department is bloated, bureaucratic and unable to perform its essential diplomatic mission in this new era of great-power competition,” Rubio said in a statement, referring to US rivalry with China.”The sprawling bureaucracy created a system more beholden to radical political ideology than advancing America’s core national interests.”One key change will be eliminating a division in charge of “civilian security, democracy and human rights.”It will be replaced by a new office of “coordination for foreign assistance and humanitarian affairs,” which will absorb functions of the US Agency for International Development — gutted at the start of the Trump administration with the elimination of more than 80 percent of programs.The new office will oversee a bureau on “democracy, human rights and religious freedom” — a shift from the current “democracy, human rights and labor,” which included advocacy of workers’ rights overseas.Previous administrations from both major US parties had separate envoys in charge of religious freedom, a position now being merged.In an opinion piece, Rubio aired grievances about previous work within the bureau including its unsuccessful push internally to restrict weapons sales to Israel on human rights grounds.”The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor became a platform for left-wing activists to wage vendettas against ‘anti-woke’ leaders in nations such as Poland, Hungary and Brazil, and to transform their hatred of Israel into concrete policies such as arms embargoes,” he wrote in the piece on Substack.- ‘Eviscerating American soft power’ -The restructuring formalizes the end of a special envoy on climate, which had been a senior position under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden.The plan newly eliminates an office on war crimes, whose recent work has included documenting Russia’s treatment of civilians in Ukraine. Rubio’s outline also gets rid of the Office of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, whose activities have included a task force that tries to prevent atrocities overseas before they happen.State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said that the end of offices did not necessarily mean their functions would end and that their areas of focus “could be implemented in a better, more nimble, faster way.”Lawmakers of the rival Democratic Party accused Rubio, a former senator, of a lack of transparency and of ceding ground to China, which has topped the United States globally in the number of diplomatic missions.”These potentially sweeping changes have less to do with streamlining the State Department and more to do with eviscerating American soft power, including our values-driven defense of human rights and democracy globally,” said Representative Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.Brandon Wu of anti-poverty group ActionAid USA said that Rubio’s plan was “part of an unhinged crusade against perceived ‘woke’ policies and practices, not a coherent plan for reform.”Rubio reposted an article from the online outlet The Free Press that said the State Department will reduce overall offices from 734 to 602.Under secretaries will be asked to come up with plans within 30 days to reduce personnel by 15 percent, it said, cuts that are significant but below those at a number of federal agencies.A senior State Department official, asked about the figures, said they sounded “correct” but that some positions may be eliminated without laying people off.”There will not be stories or images of people carting their belongings out of the building today,” the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

The White House on Tuesday brushed off criticism levied by dozens of US universities and colleges that accused the Trump administration of unprecedented “political interference” in American academia.More than 100 educational institutions issued a joint letter earlier Tuesday condemning President Donald Trump’s undue “intrusion.”The move comes a day after Harvard University sued the Trump administration, which has threatened to cut funding and impose outside political supervision.”The president has made it quite clear that it’s Harvard who has put themselves in a position to lose their own funding by not obeying federal law, and we expect all colleges and universities who are receiving taxpayer funds to abide by federal law,” Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said told reporters.The educational facilities — including Ivy League institutions Princeton and Brown — said in the letter that they spoke with “one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education.””We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight. However, we must oppose undue government intrusion,” it said, adding: “We must reject the coercive use of public research funding.”Trump has sought to bring several prestigious universities to heel over claims they tolerated campus anti-Semitism, threatening their budgets, tax-exempt status and the enrolment of foreign students.The letter said the schools were committed to serving as centers where “faculty, students, and staff are free to exchange ideas and opinions across a full range of viewpoints without fear of retribution, censorship, or deportation.”- Harvard lawsuit -Trump’s war against universities has seen him threaten to cut federal funding over policies meant to encourage diversity among students and staff.The Republican president has also pursued a wide-ranging immigration crackdown that has expanded to foreign students, revoking their visas, often for little or no reason.The White House has publicly justified its campaign against universities as a reaction to unchecked anti-Semitism and the desire to reverse diversity programs aimed at addressing historical oppression of minorities.Leavitt told reporters that Trump was “not going to tolerate illegal harassment and violence towards Jewish American students or students of any faith on our campuses across the country.” “We will be responding to the lawsuit in court,” she added.The administration claims protests against Israel’s war in Gaza that swept across US college campuses last year were rife with anti-Semitism.Many American universities, including Harvard, cracked down on the protests over the allegations at the time.Several top institutions, including Columbia University, have also bowed to demands from the Trump administration, which claims the educational elite is too left-wing.In the case of Harvard, the White House is seeking unprecedented levels of government control over admissions and hiring practices at the country’s oldest and wealthiest university.But Harvard rejected the government’s demands, prompting the administration last week to order the freezing of $2.2 billion in federal funding to the institution.In its lawsuit, Harvard calls for the freezing of funds and conditions imposed on federal grants to be declared unlawful, as well as for the Trump administration to pay the institution’s costs.The Department of Homeland Security has also threatened Harvard’s ability to enroll international students unless it turns over records on visa holders’ “illegal and violent activities.”International students made up 27.2 percent of Harvard’s enrollment this academic year, according to its website.