https://archive.is/2025.04.04-200922/https://www.ft.com/content/b1eda0a8-6449-4fe5-b8c6-a2afebadc823

The day after the Trump administration announced a review of $9bn in federal contracts and grants with Harvard University due to what it claimed was the university’s failure to combat antisemitism on campus, the university’s president, Alan Garber, sent an email to the Harvard community titled: Our resolve.

“When we saw the Garber statement’s subject line, everybody thought: ‘Oh, great, Harvard’s going to stand up!” said Jane Sujen Bock, a board member of the Coalition for a Diverse Harvard, a group of alumni founded in 2016 amid a legal battle over affirmative action.

But the actual body of the message indicated no such thing. In the email, Garber briefly touted academic freedom while pledging to “engage” with the administration to “combat antisemitism”, which he said he had experienced directly, and listed a series of measures the university had already taken. “We still have much work to do,” he wrote. He offered no detail about what Harvard would do to protect its independence from the Trump administration.

The US supreme court is letting the Trump administration temporarily freeze $65m in teacher-training grants that would promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in a 5-4 decision.

The decision came down on Friday afternoon, with five of the court’s conservatives – Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh – in the majority. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson all dissented.

In the unsigned opinion, the court said that the states made it clear “that they have the financial wherewithal to keep their programs running”, but the Trump administration had a strong case that it would not be able to reclaim any of the funds spent while the lower court’s order remained in place.

Trump skipped past transfers during first term in office

Turmoil on financial markets deepened on Friday, as China hit back at tariffs announced by Donald Trump, raising the likelihood of an extended trade war and damage to the global economy.

All three major stock indexes in the US plunged more than 5%, with the S&P 500 ending the day almost 6% lower, as the sell-off sparked by the tariffs announcement spread.

In the UK, the FTSE 100 plunged almost 5% - its steepest fall in five years, while Asian markets also dropped and exchanges in Germany and France faced similar falls.

The global stock market has lost trillions in value over two days, a rout sparked by Trump's announcement of sweeping new 10% import taxes on goods from every country.

Analysts say the moves, some of which are due to go into effect as soon as Saturday, amount to the biggest tax increase in the US since 1968.

They expect the measures to lead to a contraction in trade, and have warned they could drive many countries into an economic recession. In a note to investors, JP Morgan said it now put the odds of a global economic recession this year at 60%

https://archive.is/2025.04.04-011423/https://www.wsj.com/economy/trump-economic-vision-tariff-manufacturing-262180a4

President Donald Trump on Thursday demanded that a reporter stop asking about the group messaging scandal involving members of his Cabinet and other high-level officials.

While traveling on Air Force One, a reporter asked Trump if he wanted to weigh in on the inspector general investigation into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the Signal messaging app to discuss highly sensitive military plans.

At first, Trump was unclear on the question. “What is it?” Trump said.

“There’s an IG investigation into the secretary of defense’s use of the Signal app,” she said.

Trump got irritated.

“Oh, is that? You’re bringing that up again?” a miffed Trump fired back. “Don’t bring that up again. Your editor’s probably, that’s such a wasted story.”

Archived

A U.S. electric vehicle battery manufacturer with ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has suspended its permit application to build a plant near a Michigan National Guard base following fierce opposition.

Chuck Thelen, CEO of Gotion Inc. — a “wholly owned and controlled” subsidiary of Chinese company Hefei Gotion High-Tech Power Energy Co. Ltd. (Gotion High-Tech) — said the decision stemmed from the firm’s ongoing breach of contract lawsuit against Green Charter Township, according to the Big Rapids Pioneer. The township soured on the $2.4 billion project in November 2023 after voters recalled numerous officials following a series of reports revealing Gotion and its Chinese parent company’s ties to the CCP.

“I applaud the people of Mecosta County as Gotion pauses their permitting process, but their fight is not over,” Republican Michigan Rep. John Moolenaar, chair of the House Select Committee on the CCP, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Gotion must announce it will finally listen to the people, and end its projects for good.”

[...]

Questions about Gotion’s CCP-ties began to arise around March 2023 when The Midwesterner reported Gotion High-Tech’s “Articles of Association” required the firm to establish a “Party organization and carry out Party activities in accordance with the Constitution of the Communist Party of China.”

[...]

The House Select Committee on the CCP investigated Gotion High-Tech in 2024 and “found their supply chains are reliant on forced labor as part of the CCP’s ongoing genocide of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang Province,” Mooleenaar told the DCNF.

[...]

Meanwhile, Michigan residents — like Joseph Cella, the director of the Michigan-China Economic and Security Review Group — engaged in grassroots activism to oppose the CCP-tied company. Cella served as the U.S. Ambassador to Fiji during the first Trump administration.

[...]

“[They] refused to follow the directives given to state and local governments on dealings with China-based companies to exercise vigilance, conduct due diligence, and ensure transparency, integrity, and accountability are built into the partnership to guard against potential foreign government exploitation,” Cella said. “It is important that executive branch agencies, Congress, the Michigan Legislature, and citizens continue to scrutinize and investigate this ‘deal.’”

[...]

HVAC projects to improve indoor air quality. Tutoring programs for struggling students. Tuition support for young people who want to become teachers in their home communities.

These were some of the ways Maryland schools were using what remained of the state’s federal pandemic relief dollars.

Those projects and similar ones in schools around the country are now on hold — and states and school districts are on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars — after Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the U.S. Department of Education would not pay for any more expenses related to pandemic recovery.

In a letter to state education leaders Friday, McMahon said the department would not honor deadline extensions to spend COVID aid it had approved just a few months ago under the Biden administration.

tl;dr: Bernie Sanders and AOC are trying to get grassroots organizers organized to fight Trumpism in purple-red districts. He wants you to join.

Former TV pitchman has close relationship with boss RFK Jr but regularly encourages Americans to get vaccinated