Fear on campus: Harvard’s international students in ‘mass panic’ over Trump move

Fear on campus: Harvard’s international students in ‘mass panic’ over Trump move

The Guardian reports: Harvard’s foreign students described an atmosphere of “fear on campus” following an attempt by the Trump administration to ban international scholars at the oldest university in the US. On lush, grassy quads filled with tents and chairs ready for end of year graduation celebrations, international students said there was “mass panic” after Thursday’s shock announcement by the Department of Homeland Security. The move triggered cancelled flights home for the summer, scrambles for housing to stay in the…

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Losing international students could devastate many colleges and hurt the U.S. economy

Losing international students could devastate many colleges and hurt the U.S. economy

In April, the New York Times reported: Xiaofeng Wan, a former admissions officer at Amherst College, now works as a private consultant to international students who want to come to the United States. This week, as he held meetings in China with prospective students, he sensed a deep uncertainty among their parents. “They really don’t know whether they should send their children to a country where they don’t welcome Chinese students or they see China as a hostile competitor,” Dr….

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Trump calls for 50% tariff on EU, says he’s ‘not looking for a deal’ with bloc

Trump calls for 50% tariff on EU, says he’s ‘not looking for a deal’ with bloc

CNBC reports: President Donald Trump on Friday said he is “recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the European Union” after complaining that trade negotiations have stalled. The steep new import duties would start June 1, Trump wrote on Truth Social. The EU “has been very difficult to deal with,” Trump wrote of the 27-nation bloc. “Our discussions with them are going nowhere!” Asked later Friday if he was looking to cut a deal with the EU in the next nine…

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Netanyahu accused of slander after criticising Macron, Carney and Starmer

Netanyahu accused of slander after criticising Macron, Carney and Starmer

The Guardian reports: Benjamin Netanyahu was accused of slander and pursuing a war without end after he claimed the leaders of France, Canada and the UK were stoking antisemitism and siding with Hamas by demanding he end the two-month blockade of food and aid into Gaza. In what has become an extraordinary standoff with some of Israel’s closest allies, Netanyahu appeared to deliberately raise the stakes on Thursday night by accusing his western critics of abandoning Israel in a war…

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Hypernormalization: Why the United States increasingly feels like the Soviet Union

Hypernormalization: Why the United States increasingly feels like the Soviet Union

Adrienne Matei writes: In January, the comedian Ashley Bez posted an Instagram video of herself, trying to describe a heavy mood in the air. “How come everything feels all …?” she says, trailing off and grimacing exaggeratedly into the camera. Digital anthropologist Rahaf Harfoush saw the video, and got it immediately. “Welcome to the hypernormalization club,” Harfoush said in a response video. “I’m so sorry that you’re here.” “Hypernormalization” is a heady, $10 word, but it captures the weird, dire…

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Trump regime halts Harvard’s ability to enroll international students

Trump regime halts Harvard’s ability to enroll international students

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration on Thursday halted Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students, taking aim at a crucial funding source for the nation’s oldest and wealthiest college in a major escalation in the administration’s efforts to pressure the elite school to fall in line with the president’s agenda. The administration notified Harvard about the decision after a back-and-forth in recent days over the legality of a sprawling records request as part of the Department of…

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Federal judge blocks Trump regime from revoking international students’ legal status

Federal judge blocks Trump regime from revoking international students’ legal status

NBC News reports: A federal judge in California has blocked the Trump administration from terminating the legal statuses of international students at universities across the U.S. In the injunction, District Judge Jeffrey S. White in Oakland also prohibited the administration from arresting or detaining any foreign-born students on the basis of their immigration status while a case challenging previous terminations moves through the courts. In his decision, White said that the Trump administration has “wreaked havoc” on the lives of…

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Bond market shudders as tax bill deepens deficit worries

Bond market shudders as tax bill deepens deficit worries

The New York Times reports: The market for U.S. government bonds, the bedrock of the global financial system, continued to shudder on Thursday, as President Trump’s bill to extend expensive tax cuts and create new ones without significantly slashing spending passed through the House of Representatives. The bill has unnerved investors, deepening worries that the country’s debt is becoming unmanageable. Yields on U.S. bonds, which underpin consumer and business interest rates around the world, from mortgages to corporate loans, have…

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European officials say Trump tells their leaders Putin isn’t ready to end war

European officials say Trump tells their leaders Putin isn’t ready to end war

The Wall Street Journal reports: On a call Monday, President Trump told European leaders that Russian President Vladimir Putin isn’t ready to end the war in Ukraine because he thinks he is winning, according to four senior European officials familiar with the conversation. In what the officials characterized as a rambling and at-times contradictory call, Trump also said he believed Putin ultimately desired peace, albeit on Russia’s terms, they said. The Europeans’ takeaway was that Trump didn’t believe that a…

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Tesla reputation now even worse than scandal-hit UnitedHealth Group

Tesla reputation now even worse than scandal-hit UnitedHealth Group

Fortune reports: Evidence is mounting that Elon Musk, widely viewed as the most successful entrepreneur of his generation, is inflicting serious damage on the image of his companies. On Tuesday, a new Axios Harris annual reputation poll showed that Tesla has continued to fall in the eyes of Americans ever since Musk waded full-on into the nation’s hyper-partisan political debate with the acquisition of Twitter. Prior to the $44 billion deal, the electric vehicle manufacturer came in eighth place in…

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Bluesky is plotting a total takeover of the social internet

Bluesky is plotting a total takeover of the social internet

Kate Knibbs writes: As I waited to meet with Jay Graber, the CEO of Bluesky, on the 25th floor of an office building in downtown Seattle, I stared out at the city’s waterfront and thought: God fucking damn it. Stretching in every direction was a wall of dense, gray, tragically boring fog. And here I was about to interview the head of a social platform named after good weather. On camera, no less. Then something miraculous happened. Moments before Graber…

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The human brain is like a murmuration of starlings

The human brain is like a murmuration of starlings

Luiz Pessoa writes: When thousands of starlings swoop and swirl in the evening sky, creating patterns called murmurations, no single bird is choreographing this aerial ballet. Each bird follows simple rules of interaction with its closest neighbours, yet out of these local interactions emerges a complex, coordinated dance that can respond swiftly to predators and environmental changes. This same principle of emergence – where sophisticated behaviours arise not from central control but from the interactions themselves – appears across nature…

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Trump’s evidence of ‘white genocide’ in South Africa: victims of fighting in Congo

Trump’s evidence of ‘white genocide’ in South Africa: victims of fighting in Congo

AFP reports: US President Donald Trump brandished a stack of printed articles at the White House Wednesday that he claimed documented a genocide taking place against white people in South Africa. Mixed into the deck of papers he unveiled before South African leader Cyril Ramaphosa, however, was a months-old blog post featuring a photo from the Democratic Republic of Congo. “Death of people, death, death, death, horrible death, death,” Trump said as he flipped through the headlines, which he said…

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Judge dismisses charges against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka while reprimanding federal prosecutors

Judge dismisses charges against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka while reprimanding federal prosecutors

New Jersey Globe reports: A federal judge on Wednesday scolded federal prosecutors and announced he will dismiss trespassing charges against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka related to a standoff at a migrant detention center. Interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba announced earlier this week she would drop charges against Baraka (but at the same time announced new charges against Rep. LaMonica McIver stemming from a scuffle during Baraka’s arrest). Federal magistrate judge Andre Espinosa reprimanded the federal prosecutors for…

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