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  • White House Pressures Elite Universities for Policy Changes

    People take photos near a John Harvard statue on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on January 2, 2024. (Steven Senne/AP via CNN Newsource)

    By Taylor Romine, CNN

    (CNN) — Tensions are rising across American academia as the Trump administration froze over $2 billion in multi-year grants and contracts at Harvard University after its leaders refused to make key policy changes the White House also is demanding of other elite US colleges.

    Harvard refused to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs, ban masks at campus protests, enact merit-based hiring and admissions reforms, and reduce the power of faculty and administrators the Republican administration has called “more committed to activism than scholarship.”

    “The University will not surrender its independence or its constitutional rights,” Harvard President Alan M. Garber wrote Monday of the Ivy League school near Boston.

    Harvard appears to be the first elite US university to rebuke the White House’s demands, which Trump officials say aim to combat antisemitism following contentious campus protests in response to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

    Universities have a responsibility to uphold civil rights laws and stop harassment of Jewish students, the Trump administration wrote Monday regarding the Harvard funding freeze without citing any examples.

    “It is time for elite universities to take the problem seriously and commit to meaningful change if they wish to continue receiving taxpayer support,” the Health and Human Service Department’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism said.

    Trump officials also have moved to revoke the visas of more than 525 students, faculty and researchers at over 80 US universities and colleges. Some are high-profile cases involving alleged support of terror organizations, while others involve relatively minor offenses, such as years-old misdemeanors.

    Here is how universities across the country are responding to the White House’s demands for institutional policy changes.

    Columbia University

    Columbia University was one of the first colleges targeted by the Trump administration, which on March 7 announced $400 million in federal grants and contracts was being pulled from the university over what White House officials described as the school’s failure to stop antisemitism amid last year’s campus protests.

    In a second letter the following week, it outlined specific changes it wanted to see after discussions with university officials, including that the school enforce its disciplinary policies, implement rules for protests, ban masks used for the “purpose of concealing one’s identity,” announce a plan to hold student groups accountable, empower its law enforcement and review its Middle East studies programs and admissions policies.

    After about two weeks of back-and-forth, the Ivy League school in New York set out an action plan for changes that appear intended to address the administration’s concerns. Its board of trustees endorsed the changes as in line with the school’s values and mission.

    “Members of our community and external stakeholders have raised concerns about a multitude of issues, such as antisemitism, discrimination, harassment, and bias,” the trustees wrote. “We take these concerns seriously, and we are committed to creating a better environment on campus. We are confident that building on the progress and ideas outlined today will help us achieve these goals.”

    Three federal agencies called the policy changes a “positive first step.”

    After the government’s announcement about Harvard’s funding, acting Columbia University President Claire Shipman said her university has continued “good faith discussions” with the Trump administration to restore their working relationship.

    No agreements have been made, she wrote, and Columbia would reject any “heavy-handed orchestration” in which “the government dictates what we teach, research, or who we hire,” or “would require us to relinquish our independence and autonomy as an educational institution.”

    “Like many of you, I read with great interest the message from Harvard refusing the federal government’s demands for changes to policies and practices that would strike at the very heart of that university’s venerable mission,” Shipman wrote. “In this moment, a continued public conversation about the value and principles of higher education is enormously useful.”

    Princeton University

    The Trump administration suspended $210 million of Princeton University’s research grants as the school is investigated for antisemitism on campus, the Ivy League school’s president announced in early April.

    The grants came from NASA, the Defense Department and the Energy Department, Princeton said. The Commerce Department last week announced Princeton would lose nearly another $4 million in federal funding for climate research programs.

    “The full rationale for this action is not yet clear,” university President Christopher Eisgruber wrote to the New Jersey university community after the first grant suspensions.

    Eisgruber has been outspoken about his concerns with the paused funding as it remains unclear whether the sides are in discussions.

    Before Princeton’s funding was suspended, Eisgruber called the Trump administration’s actions “the greatest threat to American universities since the Red Scare of the 1950s,” in an op-ed in the Atlantic about the situation at Columbia.

    “I believe it is essential for us to protect academic freedom,” Eisgruber told the New York Times after Princeton’s funding was cut off. He was unwilling to make any concessions to the government, he added, noting Trump officials hadn’t asked for anything specific.

    Cornell University and Northwestern University

    The Trump administration last week froze more than $1 billion in federal funding for Cornell University, an Ivy League school in New York state, and $790 million in federal funding at Northwestern University near Chicago, a White House official told CNN.

    “The money was frozen in connection with several ongoing, credible, and concerning Title VI investigations,” a Trump administration official said, referring to a federal statute that prohibits discrimination in programs and activities that get federal funding.

    Neither university was made aware by the government that the funding was frozen until it was reported by the news media, both said in statements last week, though Cornell got more than 75 stop work orders from the Department of Defense, it said.

    “We are actively seeking information from federal officials to learn more about the basis for these decisions,” Cornell said in a statement.

    Northwestern has “fully cooperated” with investigations from Congress and the Department of Education, it said.

    “Federal funds that Northwestern receives drive innovative and life-saving research, like the recent development by Northwestern researchers of the world’s smallest pacemaker, and research fueling the fight against Alzheimer’s disease,” the school said in a statement. “This type of research is now at jeopardy.”

    Cornell University on Monday announced it is joining a lawsuit challenging the Energy Department’s proposed cuts to indirect costs like facilities and utilities, which appears separate from the frozen funding.

    CNN’s Jeff Winter, Samantha Waldenberg, TuAnh Dam, Yash Roy, Emma Tucker, Gloria Pazmino, Karina Tsui and Elizabeth Wolfe contributed to this report

    The-CNN-Wire
    & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

    Source: Seattle Medium

  • Joshua Zirkzee to miss rest of the season


    Image Credits: GETTY IMAGES

    Joshua Zirkzee’s injury suffered against Newcastle was a blow amid a terrible day for Manchester United fans.

    Fans have been waiting for an update on Zirkzee’s injury status.

    It can now be revealed that the striker is set to miss rest of the season, due to hamstring injury.

    The update was provided by Sami Mokbel, on his report for BBC.

    More to follow.

    CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE CENTRE DEVILS WHATSAPP GROUP CHAT NOW!

    Source: Centred Devils

  • Donald Trump, Free Trade Champion

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    Victor Davis Hanson among others has been wondering aloud and in print why, if tariffs are bad, do so many countries have them on U.S. products? He is right — tariffs are bad in that like any tax on a market they reduce trade and people trade with each other because both sides expect to benefit, and often, each side of a trade does gain. Or, as has been said about protection in general, it is when you do to yourself in peacetime what your enemies would do to you in wartime.

    .

    As an aside, if you tax anything, you get less of it. Government must raise funds via taxation even if the U.S. government raises too much money and wastes lot of it. If you raise funds taxing markets or exchange with tariffs or sales taxes, you reduce trade domestic or international. If you tax income, then you reduce income generation or work, investment in tools, and business formation. A case can be made for taxing markets rather than income, but that is an issue for another discussion.

    .

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    The producers of a product, including both owners and workers, in protected industries gain, again even if society loses. So, producers often lobby governments to impose tariffs to protect their industry.

    Thus, weak politicians around the world buckle under to groups that benefit from tariffs, hoping to get them as political allies and gain their votes in elections. These are concentrated benefits that only a few obtain, but the few really notice their gains. Sure, there are costs for society, but these costs are spread over many more people and the weak politician hopes they will not be felt as much nor cost them many, if any, votes.

    Of course, in Donald Trump the U.S. has anything but a weak politician. So, what is he doing? He has said at various times he favors free trade, but that trade now is anything but free for U.S. goods. What he may be doing is providing cover for weak politicians around the globe. Mark Carney, the new prime minister of Canada, has not been able to stand up to the Canadian dairy farmers’ lobby, but he may well have to now, faced with the Trump tariffs. And he can say to the Canadian dairy farmers, “Don’t blame me, it’s that Trump guy.”

    Over the next few months lots of weak politicians around the world may be forced to stand up to various tariff pressure groups in their countries, saying, “It’s not me, but that Trump guy.” If this comes to pass, President Trump may become the greatest free trader in world history. And if that comes to pass, as usual, he will get little to no credit for it.

    ••••

    Source: TLB

  • Mom fatally shot in bed next to her 3 kids; scene was allegedly staged as home invasion

    This Week on True Crime News The Podcast: Saun Rainge Jr. allegedly shot his estranged girlfriend Porshe Streeter multiple times while she slept alongside the former couple’s three children, then staged it as a home invasion. The children were not physically injured. Police say Rainge Jr. enlisted the help of his cousin Benjamin Garmon in the fatal attack, even having his cousin shoot him to make it look like he fought with the supposed attacker.

    Tracy Tamborra joins host Ana Garcia.

    Source: True Crime Daily

  • Teen kills parents in Wisconsin as part of plot to assassinate Trump, officials say

    A 17-year-old from Wisconsin is accused of killing his parents as part of an extremist plot to assassinate President Donald Trump, authorities said.

    Nikita Casap, 17, is charged with conspiracy, presidential assassination and weapons of mass destruction in federal court and two counts of homicide, two counts of hiding a corpse, two counts of theft, driving a vehicle without consent and misappropriate ID information in Waukesha County Court.

    Casap’s attorneys did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on Sunday, April 13.

    Newly unsealed court documents say Casap killed his mother and stepfather as part of a plot with others to assassinate Trump and begin a “political revolution.”

    On Feb. 28, authorities responded to a home in Waukesha for a welfare check, according to an affidavit.

    A relative told police she was unable to reach Donald Mayer and his wife Tatiana Casap and learned that Nikita Casap had not been to school in two weeks, the court record said.

    Deputies went to the home, but no one answered. They then learned Mayer had not been to work in weeks, according to the court records. When deputies went inside the home through the garage, they found Tatiana Casap dead covered in blankets, according to court records.

    Investigators then found Mayer dead from gunshot wounds and covered in blankets in a first-floor office, the affidavit said.

    Officials believe the two were killed on Feb. 11.

    Officials said Nikita Casap was living with his parents’ bodies for 12 days, WISN reported. During that time, he was communicating with his school, Mayer’s job and family members from his parents’ accounts, court records said, according to the outlet.

    The night of Feb. 28, police in Wakeeney, Kansas, located Mayer’s vehicle and conducted a traffic stop. Nikita Casap was arrested and police found a gun, ammunition, U.S. currency and Euros inside the car, according to the court document.

    Assassination plot

    Officials said Nikita Casap killed his parents in an effort to gain the financial means necessary to carry out his assassination plot on Trump.

    Investigators found message conversations between Nikita Casap and others where he discussed being affiliated with the Order of Nine Angles, a “network of individuals holding neo-Nazi racially motivated extremist views,” according to the affidavit.

    Nikita Casap talked about a manifesto, which authorities later found images of, court records said.

    The three-page manifesto talked about the white race surviving, and Trump and the vice president’s deaths causing “chaos,” according to the affidavit.

    Investigators also found a message conversation between Nikita Casap and a Ukrainian phone number, the court document said.

    Nikita Casap asks “How long will I need to hide before I will be moved to Ukraine?” and he talks about learning Russian and having a “normal job” and “normal life” in Ukraine, the affidavit said.

    In another message conversation with the username “@AngelOfDeath” Nikita Casap discussed a drone that would drop a bomb with nuts, bolts and needles and payment for it, according to the court records.

    Nikita Casap is being held on a $1 million bond.

    ___

    © 2025 The Charlotte Observer.

    Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.


    Source: American Military News

  • FUOYE VC Not Suspended, Says Management

    The Federal University Oye Ekiti (FUOYE) Ekiti State management has denied reports that Vice Chancellor Prof. Abayomi Fasina was suspended.

    According to the university, Fasina has been granted 126 days of accumulated annual and research leave, and will remain the substantive VC until February 2026 when his tenure ends.

    The university management, in a statement by the Public Relations Officer, Foluso Ogunmodede, disclosed that the university has chosen Prof. Olubunmi Samuel Shittu to act on Fasina’s behalf during his leave.

    The management described circulating reports as “deliberate manipulation of facts” and “malicious lies” meant to disparage Fasina’s reputation.

    “The University Governing Council at its 7th Emergency Meeting on April 14 ratified an accumulated Annual and Research Leave of 126 working days for Fasina out of the 288 working days’ leave that he requested.

    “While he will be away on further academic research, he recommended two of the Deputy Vice-Chancellors to act on his behalf and not to replace him. From these, the council chose the most senior of the DVCs, Prof. Olubunmi Samuel Shittu, as Acting VC and not as substantive VC.

    “It has been brought to the notice of the university management the grievous lies, malicious misrepresentation and blackmail on the true position of the VC of the university, and this has misinformed and misled a part of the public.

    “It is, therefore, necessary to state unequivocally the facts and enlighten the public of the current happenings in the university as follows: Prof. Abayomi Sunday Fasina remains the substantive VC of FUOYE until he hands over to the next VC when his tenure ends in February 2026.

    “As an erudite scholar, the VC is legally entitled to his accumulated Annual and Research Leave, and he is at liberty to choose when to apply for the same. He decided to apply for his leave on Monday, 14th April, 2025. Fasina applied for his 288 days, but the council in its wisdom only granted him 126 days,” the statement said.

    The university management urged the public to disregard false reports about FUOYE, warning that it will take legal action against anyone continuing to spread misinformation.

    FUOYE VC Not Suspended, Says Management is first published on The Whistler Newspaper

    Source: The Whistler

  • Trump wants to imprison citizens in El Salvador. That’s likely illegal

    By NICHOLAS RICCARDI

    President Donald Trump on Monday reiterated that he’d like to send U.S. citizens who commit violent crimes to prison in El Salvador, telling that country’s president, Nayib Bukele, that he’d “have to build five more places” to hold the potential new arrivals.

    Trump’s administration has already deported immigrants to El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison CECOT, known for its harsh conditions. The president has also said his administration is trying to find “legal” ways to ship U.S. citizens there, too.

    Trump on Monday insisted these would just be “violent people,” implying they would be those already convicted of crimes in the United States, though he’s also floated it as a punishment for those who attack Tesla dealerships to protest his administration and its patron, billionaire Elon Musk. But it would likely be a violation of the U.S. Constitution for his administration to send any native-born citizen forcibly into an overseas prison. Indeed, it would likely even violate a provision of a law Trump himself signed during his first term.

    Here’s a look at the notion of sending U.S. citizens to prison in a foreign country, why it’s likely not legal and some possible legal loopholes.

    If it’s legal to do to immigrants, why not citizens?

    Immigrants can be deported from the United States, while citizens cannot. Deportation is covered by immigration law, which does not apply to U.S. citizens. Part of being a citizen means you cannot be forcibly sent to another country.

    Immigrants can be removed, and that’s what’s been happening in El Salvador. The country is taking both its own citizens that the United States is sending as well as those from Venezuela and potentially other countries that will not take their own citizens back from the U.S. The Venezuelans sent there last month had no opportunity to respond to evidence against them or appear before a judge.

    That’s the deal the Trump administration signed with Bukele. The U.S. has sent people to El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama and elsewhere even when they are not citizens of those countries. But, under international agreements, people cannot be sent to countries where they are likely to be persecuted or tortured.

    Prisoners look out from their cell at the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Friday, April 4, 2025, during a tour by the Costa Rica Justice and Peace minister. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)

    Why does the Trump administration want to send people to El Salvador?

    Bukele calls himself “the world’s coolest dictator” and has cracked down on human rights during his administration. He’s also turned El Salvador from one of the world’s most violent countries into a fairly safe one. Trump has embraced that example, including during the Oval Office visit Monday.

    Sending immigrants from countries like Venezuela to El Salvador sends a message to would-be migrants elsewhere about the risks of trying to make it to — or stay in — the United States.

    Source: Paradise Post

  • Katsuhiro Harada acknowledges that the backlash to the Season 2 patch for Tekken 8 was not at all unjustified











    The Season 2 update has seemingly destroyed the community perception of Tekken 8 overnight. The aggressive negative voting on Steam has caused the game’s review rating on Steam to drop to “Overwhelmingly Negative.”






    Even before the patch was dropped, Bandai Namco revealed plans to launch an emergency patch sometime in the future. Just yesterday, Bandai Namco dropped a notice that informed us of details about the emergency patch that is due to drop on Wednesday.









    With this notice, the Tekken development team mentioned a number of adjustments and reverts coming to the game. Of course, we’re still awaiting the full patch notes to be documented, which will likely become available tomorrow.


    There will apparently be another patch dropping in the middle of May. This particularly update will be making adjustments directed at air combo damage and the Heat Burst mechanic.


    Throughout this process, there’s been quite an uproar amongst the community. Even a three-time Evo champion referred to the Season 2 direction as being “selfish” on the developers’ parts.


    While someone might think that these opinions might upset someone like Katsuhiro Harada, he actually seems quite thankful for all of the feedback he’s been receiving. He even outright stated that he feels like it is necessary for the development team to listen to the community’s wishes for the game.


    “I personally do not think this backlash is at all unjustified,” said Harada over on X. “I recognize that it is a natural occurrence and we have no choice but to respond by continuing to update.”


    “I personally do not think this backlash is at all unjustified. I recognize that it is a natural occurrence and we have no choice but to respond by continuing to update.” — Katsuhiro Harada


    Harada was also asked about the decision to increase the health totals for all of the characters. After responding, Harada confirmed that the team will continue to update the game as quickly as possible after this upcoming patch.


    “The life bar increase is also one of the measures we have been taking since the time of the arcade release (when we upgraded DR, BR, FR, etc. this time season update), and of course, completely apart from this, we will also be tuning the parameters of each character,” continued Harada.


    “We will continue to revamp the entire game as quickly as possible after this patch, and will be updating it consistently, so please wait for more information.”


    Of course, Harada then emphasizes the dedication of the developers. They’re apparently working “day and night” in an attempt to win back the community.


    “The battle team is already developing day and night for the next update,” said Harada. “There will be more updates in the future, including parameter adjustments for each character and arts, so please wait for more information.”










    Source: Event Hubs

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  • Regional SHEQ Manager at Epiroc April, 2025



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    Regional SHEQ Manager




    What You will acheive:

    • Champion Zero Harm: Spearhead a proactive safety culture, eliminating workplace injuries.

    • Drive Environmental Excellence: Implement strategies to minimize our environmental footprint and maximize resource efficiency.

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    We are looking for someone with:

    • 8+ years in SHEQ management, ideally in mining.

    • A relevant University degree (Health & Safety, Environmental Management, etc.). MBA a plus.

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