4 d. ago Trump administration demands $1bn from UCLA to restore federal funding

University of California president says ‘a payment of this scale would completely devastate’ public university systemThe Trump administration is seeking a $1bn settlement from the University of California, Los Angeles, a White House official said on Friday.The person was not authorized to speak publicly about the request and spoke on condition of anonymity. Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago Trump administration seeks $1 billion settlement from UCLA, a White House official says

A White House official says the Trump administration is seeking a $1 billion settlement from the University of California, Los Angeles

Politics

6 d. ago JD Vance visits Indiana to discuss redistricting amid Trump pressure on GOP states – US politics live

Protests set to greet vice-president on visit after governor said redistricting ‘looks like it’s going to happen across many Republican states’Across the US’s fabled but overstretched national parks, unusual scenes are playing out this summer following budget cuts by Donald Trump’s administration. Archeologists are staffing ticket booths, ecologists are covering visitor centers and the superintendents of parks are even cleaning the toilets.The National Park Service (NPS), responsible for maintaining cherished wildernesses and sites of cultural importance from Yellowstone to the Statue of Liberty, has lost a quarter of its permanent staff since Trump took office in January, with the administration seeking to gut the service’s budget by a third.Donald Trump has claimed “great progress was made” during talks on ending the war in Ukraine between his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Wednesday. The three-hour talks came two days before a deadline the US p...

Politics

6 d. ago US national parks staff in ‘survival mode’ to keep parks open amid Trump cuts

Park bosses say they’re running visitor centers and even cleaning bathrooms as remaining staff try to keep sites openAcross the US’s fabled but overstretched national parks, unusual scenes are playing out this summer following budget cuts by Donald Trump’s administration. Archeologists are staffing ticket booths, ecologists are covering visitor centers and the superintendents of parks are even cleaning the toilets.The National Park Service (NPS), responsible for maintaining cherished wildernesses and sites of cultural importance from Yellowstone to the Statue of Liberty, has lost a quarter of its permanent staff since Trump took office in January, with the administration seeking to gut the service’s budget by a third. Continue reading...

Events

6 d. ago US international students: how are you feeling about the upcoming semester?

We would like to hear from new and returning students on how they are approaching the new academic yearHarvard University is in court against the Trump administration, fighting federal attempts to end international student enrolment at the university and challenging the federal freeze on research funds.In May, international students at Harvard were ordered to transfer schools or lose their legal status. While that order was swiftly blocked by a judge, it is one of a series of events creating uncertainty on campuses across the US. Continue reading...

Society

7 d. ago Texas senator asks FBI to help locate and arrest Democrats for leaving state

John Cornyn ramps us gerrymandering showdown between lawmakers and Trump administration seeking GOP seatsThe US senator John Cornyn of Texas has asked the FBI to aid Texas law enforcement in locating and arresting Democrats who left the state to forestall a plan sought by Donald Trump to aggressively redraw the state’s congressional map in a way that could help Republicans keep their House majority after the 2026 midterm elections.The senator’s request is a significant escalation in the fast-moving showdown that could set up a confrontation between the blue state leaders shielding the Democratic state lawmakerss and the Trump administration. Earlier on Tuesday, Texas Democrats denied a legislative quorum for the second day in a row by scattering across the country, with many decamping to Chicago, Illinois, where the Democratic governor, JB Pritzker, has vowed to protect them. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago What the culture war over Superman gets wrong | Noel Ransome

Rightwing commentators are furious over the superhero’s positioning as an immigrant. But his story was crafted to cushion uneaseWe’ve entered the era of the superhero movie as sermon. No longer content with saving the world, spandex saviors are now being used to explain, moralize and therapize it. And a being from Krypton has shown up once again in a debate about real life; about borders, race and who gets to belong. Superman. Of all symbols.I’ve read reactionary thinkpieces, rage-filled quote tweets and screeds about the legal status of a fictional alien – enough to lose count. This particular episode of American Fragility kicked off because James Gunn had the audacity to call Superman “the story of America”. An immigrant, by definition, as he was always meant to be.Noel Ransome is a Toronto-based freelance writer Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Trump administration sued by 20 states for cutting disaster prevention grants

Lawsuit claims Fema lacks power to cancel multibillion-dollar Bric program after it was approved by CongressA group of 20 mostly Democratic-led US states filed a lawsuit on Wednesday seeking to block the Trump administration from terminating a multibillion-dollar grant program that funds infrastructure upgrades to protect against natural disasters.The lawsuit filed in Boston federal court claims that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) lacked the power to cancel the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program in April after it was approved and funded by Congress. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Feds charge 3 current or former Louisiana police chiefs in an alleged visa fraud scheme

Authorities say three current or former Louisiana police chiefs have been arrested following a federal investigation into an alleged scheme that involved false police reports being sold to immigrants lacking permanent legal status and used to try to secure a visa

Events

3 w. ago 20 states sue the Trump admin for cutting disaster prevention money

A group of 20 mostly Democrat-led U.S. states filed a lawsuit on Wednesday seeking to block the Trump administration from terminating a multibillion-dollar grant program

Politics

4 w. ago Immigration agency flexes authority to sharply expand detention without bond hearing

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is moving to detain far more people than before, tapping a legal authority to jail anyone who entered the country illegally

Culture

4 w. ago Trump administration seeks to end bond hearings for immigrants without legal status

Under new policy, such immigrants would not be able to request bond from immigration judge before deportationThe Trump administration is reportedly seeking to bar millions of immigrants who allegedly arrived in the US without legal status from receiving a bond hearing as they try to fight their deportations in court.The new policy would apply during removal proceedings, which can take years, for millions of immigrants who entered the country from Mexico in recent decades, according to a report from the Washington Post, which reviewed documents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice). Continue reading...

Events