Harvard Universityhas filed a lawsuit against theTrump administrationin a bid to halt a freeze of $2.2m in funding, as a battle between Trump and the Ivy League institution escalates.
In a damning legal complaint filed with the Massachusetts district court, Harvard’s president, Alan M Garber, accused theTrump administrationof trying to “gain control of academic decision making at Harvard”, adding that no government “should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue”.
TheTrump administrationhas sought to force changes at multiple Ivy League institutions after months of student activism centered around the war in Gaza. The administration has painted the campus protests as anti-American, and the institutions as liberal and antisemitic, a claim that Garber refutes.
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In a statement accompanying the lawsuit, Harvard’s Garber said the funding freeze was putting health research into jeopardy, including improving the prospects for children who survive cancer, understanding how cancer spreads through the body, predicting the spread of infectious disease outbreaks and easing the pain of soldiers wounded on the battlefield.
“As opportunities to reduce the risk of multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease are on the horizon, the government is slamming on the brakes,”he wrote.
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A former top Pentagon spokesperson has slammed Pete Hegseth’s leadership of the department of defense, as pressure mounts on the defense secretary after reports of a second Signal chatroom used to discuss sensitive military operations.
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Donald Trumpoffered public support for defense secretaryPete Hegsetha day after itemergedthe defense secretary had shared information about US strikes in Yemen last month in a secondSignal group chatthat included family members, his personal lawyer and several top Pentagon aides.
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A delegation of four HouseDemocratshas arrived inEl Salvadorto push for the release of Kilmar Ábrego García, part of a mission to challenge theTrump administration’s refusal to comply with a supreme court order to facilitate his returnto the United States.
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US stock markets started falling again on Monday morning as Trump continued attacks against theFederal Reservechair, Jerome Powell, whom the president called “a major loser” for not lowering interest rates.
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TheTrump administration’s cuts to a sexually transmitted infection lab at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention comes as some states announce enormous increases in syphilis. TheTrump administrationhas made deep cuts to health programs, affecting expert leadership and programs that surveil, test and research STIs.
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US government employees “improperly” shared sensitive documents, including White House blueprints, with thousands of federal workers, the Washington Postreported. Staff at an independent agency that oversees the construction and preservation of government buildings, shared a Google Drive folder contacting confidential files to all GSA staff members, totaling more than 11,200 people.
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The US supreme court heard arguments in a case that could threaten Americans’ accessto free preventive healthcare servicesunder the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.
British lawmakers and peers have called for Trump to be blockedfromaddressing parliament during his UK visit.
Hundreds of marches, pickets and cleanup events took place across the US in the run-up to Earth Dayas environmental and climate groups step upresistance to the Trump administration’s “war on the planet”.
Catching up?Here’s what happened on20 April 2025.