Columbia College agrees to pay greater than $220m as settlement to Trump administration
Columbia College introduced on Wednesday that it has signed an settlement with the united statesgovernment to pay $200m to settle a number of investigations into alleged violations of federal anti-discrimination legal guidelines.
The college additionally agreed to pay an extra $21m “to settle investigations introduced by the U.S. Equal Employment Alternative Fee”.
In return for the large funds, to be revamped three years, “a overwhelming majority of the federal grants which have been terminated or paused in March 2025 – will likely be reinstated and Columbia’s entry to billions of {dollars} in present and future grants will likely be restored”, in accordance with the college.
The settlement was signed by the college trustees and three Trump administration cupboard members: Pam Bondi, the legal professional normal, Linda MacMahon, the training secretary, and Robert F Kennedy Jr, the well being secretary.
The settlement comes after Columbia already gave in to lots of the Trump administration’s calls for, agreeing final week to undertake a controversial definition of antisemitism that precludes criticism of Israel and expelling or suspending over 70 college students who briefly occupied a campus library studying room in Might to protest the Israeli assault on Palestinians in Gaza.
On Monday, Harvard College argued in federal court docket that the Trump administration’s resolution to chop $2.6bn in funding from that college, over comparable claims, was an unlawful, politically motivated try to strain the varsity into adopting insurance policies on scholar conduct, admissions, antisemitism and variety extra in keeping with the president’s personal views.
Share
Up to date at 20.33 EDT
Key occasions
Present key occasions solely
Please activate JavaScript to make use of this function
Federal appeals court docket blocks Trump’s ‘unconstitutional’ try to finish birthright citizenship
A federal appeals court docket dominated on Wednesday that Donald Trump’s government order declaring an finish birthright citizenship is unconstitutional, affirming a lower-court resolution that blocked its enforcement nationwide.
The ruling from a divided panel of the ninth US circuit court docket of appeals comes after Trump’s plan was additionally blocked by a federal choose in New Hampshire. It brings the problem one step nearer to coming again shortly earlier than the supreme court docket.
The appeals court docket ruling blocks the Trump administration from implementing the order that will deny citizenship to kids born to people who find themselves in the USA with out everlasting authorized standing or quickly.
“The district court docket accurately concluded that the Government Order’s proposed interpretation, denying citizenship to many individuals born in the USA, is unconstitutional. We totally agree”, the bulk wrote.
Share
Trump retains saying Saudi king praised his management in Might; there isn’t any report they met
“Once I traveled to the Center East in Might, each chief I met was thrilled to do enterprise with American tech corporations, and with America, they usually have been all thrilled to satisfy me”, Donald Trump boasted at an AI summit earlier on Wednesday.
He then regaled the assembled trade leaders with a narrative he has advised dozens of occasions within the months since, regardless of the actual fact it appears to disclose that the president is confused about who hosted him on his go to to Saudi Arabia.
“The king of Saudi Arabia”, Trump recalled, “stated, ‘You already know what? One 12 months in the past, your nation was lifeless, it was a lifeless nation…. You had a lifeless nation, and right now, Mr President, you might have the most popular nation wherever on the earth’.
In accordance with Trump, the leaders of Qatar and UAE echoed these feedback by Saudi king. “They stated that they usually imply it so strongly”, the president stated to widespread applause.
The issue with this anecdote is that Trump was not hosted by King Salman of Saudi Arabia, the 89-year-old monarch who has largely retreated from public life and took no half within the lavish ceremonies and conferences Trump attended in Riyadh.
As an alternative, Trump met with crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, the dominion’s de facto ruler, who authorized the 2018 homicide of the Washington Publish journalist Jamal Khashoggi, in accordance with a US intelligence report made public three weeks after the top of Trump’s first time period.
Throughout a speech to a Saudi funding discussion board throughout his journey, Trump criticized his predecessor Joe Biden for maintaining his distance from the crown prince and lavished reward on him.
Share
Columbia College agrees to pay greater than $220m as settlement to Trump administration
Columbia College introduced on Wednesday that it has signed an settlement with the united statesgovernment to pay $200m to settle a number of investigations into alleged violations of federal anti-discrimination legal guidelines.
The college additionally agreed to pay an extra $21m “to settle investigations introduced by the U.S. Equal Employment Alternative Fee”.
In return for the large funds, to be revamped three years, “a overwhelming majority of the federal grants which have been terminated or paused in March 2025 – will likely be reinstated and Columbia’s entry to billions of {dollars} in present and future grants will likely be restored”, in accordance with the college.
The settlement was signed by the college trustees and three Trump administration cupboard members: Pam Bondi, the legal professional normal, Linda MacMahon, the training secretary, and Robert F Kennedy Jr, the well being secretary.
The settlement comes after Columbia already gave in to lots of the Trump administration’s calls for, agreeing final week to undertake a controversial definition of antisemitism that precludes criticism of Israel and expelling or suspending over 70 college students who briefly occupied a campus library studying room in Might to protest the Israeli assault on Palestinians in Gaza.
On Monday, Harvard College argued in federal court docket that the Trump administration’s resolution to chop $2.6bn in funding from that college, over comparable claims, was an unlawful, politically motivated try to strain the varsity into adopting insurance policies on scholar conduct, admissions, antisemitism and variety extra in keeping with the president’s personal views.
Share
Up to date at 20.33 EDT
Home oversight subcommittee votes to subpoena Epstein information from justice division
The Home oversight subcommittee on federal regulation enforcement voted on Wednesday to concern a subpoena to the justice division compelling “the complete, unredacted launch” of information from the federal investigations of Jeffrey Epstein, the late intercourse offender who socialized with future president Donald Trump all through the Nineties.
A movement launched by congresswoman Summer time Lee, a Pennsylvania Democrat, handed by a vote of 8-2, with three votes coming from Republicans Nancy Mace, Scott Perry and Brian Jack, requires that information be launched to the subcommittee.
On Wednesday, Congresswoman Summer time Lee, a Pennsylvania Democrat, launched a movement to compel the justice division to show over its information associated to Jeffrey Epstein to the Home oversight subcommittee on federal regulation enforcement.Share
Trump indicators government order barring authorities from utilizing ‘woke’ AI fashions
Donald Trump simply accomplished his remarks to a summit of synthetic intelligence trade leaders in Washington and signed three government orders, together with one which his aide, the White Home employees secretary Will Scharf, stated would bar the US authorities from shopping for or selling AI fashions that “embrace wokeism and important race concept and all of those horrible theories which have carried out a lot harm to our nation”.
In his earlier remarks, Trump claimed that his predecessor Joe Biden had “established poisonous range, fairness and inclusion ideology as a guideline of American AI improvement”.
“However the American folks are not looking for woke Marxist lunacy within the AI fashions,” Trump stated.
Share
Up to date at 18.51 EDT
Trump tells AI leaders they need to not have to fret about copyright legal guidelines
In a rambling set of remarks at an AI summit on the Mellon Auditorium in Washington on Wednesday, Donald Trump simply advised assembled trade leaders that he desires them to “change the identify” of synthetic intelligence and that they shouldn’t be compelled to pay the authors of articles or books they use to coach their giant language fashions.
The topic of the summit, Trump stated firstly of his remarks, was “the best energy of all of them, the mind energy”.
He went on to boast, as he does at political rallies, concerning the scale of his victory within the 2024 presidential election, saying that he received by “tens of millions and tens of millions of votes” (it was 2 million), and that he received way more “districts as they might name them” (he meant counties) than Kamala Harris.
“Across the globe, all people is speaking about synthetic intelligence,” Trump stated, earlier than veering away from his ready remarks to say: “Synthetic – I can’t stand it. I don’t even just like the identify, you understand I don’t like something that’s synthetic. So might we straighten that out please? We must always change the identify.”
As some within the crowd laughed, Trump added: “I truly imply that. I don’t just like the identify synthetic, as a result of it’s not synthetic, it’s genius, it’s pure genius.”
On condition that one in every of Trump’s first acts in workplace was to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, he would possibly certainly imply it.
The president then known as for what he known as “a commonsense utility of synthetic and mental property guidelines”. Trump appeared to have unintentionally added the phrase “synthetic” to his ready remarks.
“It’s so vital,” the president continued. “You’ll be able to’t be anticipated to have a profitable AI program when each single article, e-book or anything that you simply’ve learn or studied, you’re presupposed to pay for.”
“‘Gee, I learn a e-book, I’m presupposed to pay any person,’” the president added, dismissing the mental property considerations of authors whose work has been used with out cost in a sarcastic apart.
“You already know, we respect that, however you simply can’t do it, as a result of it’s not doable,” the president went on. “And when you’re going to try to do this, you’re not going to have a profitable program.”
“When an individual reads a e-book or an article, you’ve gained nice information. That doesn’t imply that you simply’re violating copyright legal guidelines or must make offers with each content material supplier,” Trump stated. “And that’s a giant factor that you simply’re engaged on proper now.”
Share
Up to date at 18.43 EDT
Yemen assault plans Hegseth shared in Sign chat have been from labeled e-mail – report
An unbiased Pentagon inspector normal reportedly has proof that the detailed assault plans for strikes on Yemen shared in not less than two Sign group chats by protection secretary Pete Hegseth in March have been, in reality, labeled, contradicting repeated claims on the contrary from Trump administration officers.
“The Pentagon’s unbiased watchdog has acquired proof that messages from Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Sign account previewing a U.S. bombing marketing campaign in Yemen derived from a labeled e-mail labeled “SECRET/NOFORN”, the Washington Publish studies.
In accordance with the Publish, the Pentagon watchdog found that the 15 March strike plans Hegseth dropped in a single Sign group that mistakenly included the editor of the Atlantic, and a second chat that included his spouse, had first been shared “in a labeled e-mail with greater than a dozen protection officers” despatched by means of a safe, authorities system by Common Michael Erik Kurilla, the highest commander overseeing US navy operations within the Center East.
After the revelation that Hegseth had shared the key assault plans on Sign with a journalist earlier than the strikes, the protection secretary advised reporters “no one was texting conflict plans”. His chief spokesman, Sean Parnell, stated on the time: “there have been no labeled supplies or conflict plans shared”.
One other participant within the Sign group, Tulsi Gabbard, the director of nationwide intelligence, testified to congress in March that “there was no labeled materials that was shared” within the chat.
Share
Maya Yang
A federal choose dominated on Wednesday that Kilmar Ábrego García should be launched from jail as he awaits trial on human smuggling costs.
The choice from choose Waverly Crenshaw signifies that Donald Trump’s administration can probably try to deport the Maryland father of two to his native El Salvador or a 3rd nation for a second time.
Crenshaw, sitting in Nashville, agreed with an earlier resolution by a Justice of the Peace choose, concluding that prosecutors had not offered sufficient proof to indicate Ábrego is both a hazard to the general public or a flight danger.
The choose stated in his resolution that the federal government “fails to indicate by a preponderance of the proof – not to mention clear and convincing proof – that Ábrego is such a hazard to others or the neighborhood that such considerations can’t be mitigated by circumstances of launch”.
Regardless of the bail ruling, Ábrego is just not anticipated to stroll free. His authorized group has requested a 30-day delay in implementing the choice, opting to maintain him in legal detention whereas they think about subsequent steps.
In the meantime, in a separate courtroom in Maryland, US district choose Paula Xinis, who’s overseeing a civil case Ábrego filed, issued a 72-hour freeze on any additional makes an attempt by the Trump administration to deport him. Xinis dominated that Ábrego should be returned to Maryland on an order of supervision.
Share
Up to date at 16.53 EDT
Ghislaine Maxwell deposition set for 11 August at federal jail
The Home oversight committee has formally subpoenaed Ghislaine Maxwell for a deposition to happen on the Federal Correctional Establishment Tallahassee on 11 August.
“The details and circumstances surrounding each your and Mr Epstein’s instances have acquired immense public curiosity and scrutiny,” Republican chairman James Comer, of Kentucky, wrote, addressing Maxwell.
“Whereas the justice division undertakes efforts to uncover and publicly disclose further data associated to your and Mr Epstein’s instances, it’s crucial that Congress conduct oversight of the federal authorities’s enforcement of intercourse trafficking legal guidelines usually and particularly its dealing with of the investigation and prosecution of you and Mr Epstein.”
An oversight subcommittee voted yesterday to subpoena Maxwell, the imprisoned intercourse trafficker who was an in depth affiliate of the infamous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, to testify amid a political firestorm over the Trump administration’s resolution to not launch its remaining Epstein information.
Share
White Home calls WSJ report on Trump being advised identify in Epstein information ‘faux information’
“That is one other faux information story, identical to the earlier story by the Wall Avenue Journal,” White Home communications director Steven Cheung stated in an announcement in response to the WSJ’s report that the justice division knowledgeable Donald Trump in Might about his identify being within the Epstein information.
Share
DOJ officers made Trump conscious of resolution to not proceed investigations associated to Epstein – report
Within the WSJ’s report (paywall), in accordance with the officers, legal professional normal Pam Bondi and her deputy knowledgeable the president at a gathering within the White Home in Might that his identify was in the Epstein information, together with many different high-profile figures.
“The assembly set the stage for the high-profile evaluation to come back to an finish,” the WSJ studies.
The publication notes that being talked about within the paperwork is just not an indication of wrongdoing:
The officers stated it was a routine briefing that coated numerous matters and that Trump’s look within the paperwork wasn’t the main focus.
They advised the president on the assembly that the information contained what officers felt was unverified rumour about many individuals, together with Trump, who had socialized with Epstein previously, a few of the officers stated. One of many officers conversant in the paperwork stated they comprise tons of of different names.
Additionally they advised Trump that senior justice division officers didn’t plan to launch any extra paperwork associated to the investigation of the convicted intercourse offender as a result of the fabric contained baby pornography and victims’ private data, the officers stated. Trump stated on the assembly he would defer to the justice division’s resolution to not launch any additional information.
Trump denied final week in response to a journalist’s query that Bondi had advised him that his identify was within the information.
Share
Up to date at 15.59 EDT
Justice division advised Trump in Might that his identify is within the Epstein information – WSJ
“When justice division officers reviewed what legal professional normal Pam Bondi known as a ‘truckload’ of paperwork associated to Jeffrey Epstein earlier this 12 months, they found that Donald Trump’s identify appeared a number of occasions,” the Wall Avenue Journal is reporting, citing senior administration officers.
I’ll deliver you extra on this as we get it.
Share
Up to date at 15.32 EDT
US district choose Robin Rosenberg wrote that the court docket’s “fingers are tied” and stated the federal government had not requested the grand jury’s findings to be used in a judicial continuing, mentioning that district courts within the US are largely prohibited from unsealing grand jury testimony besides in very slender circumstances.
Share
The ruling talked about in my final publish stems from federal investigations of Jeffrey Epstein in Florida in 2005 and 2007, in accordance with court docket paperwork.
It doesn’t have an effect on two different pending requests by the Division of Justice that search to acquire transcripts of grand jury proceedings associated to later federal investigations of Epstein and his confederate, Ghislaine Maxwell, in New York, each of which led to separate legal indictments.
Yesterday, the New York federal court docket stated it wish to “expeditiously” resolve the Trump administration’s request, but it surely couldn’t accomplish that resulting from numerous lacking submissions.
The Trump administration filed the petitions to unseal transcripts of the grand jury proceedings final week. It adopted days of mounting strain and criticism throughout the political spectrum over the DoJ’s resolution to not launch any additional investigative proof about Epstein regardless of many earlier guarantees that it might be launched.
Share
Up to date at 15.33 EDT
Federal choose rejects bid to unseal Epstein grand jury transcripts from Florida inquiry
A US choose has denied a justice division bid to unseal grand jury transcripts associated to the convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein in South Florida, the primary ruling in a sequence of makes an attempt by Donald Trump’s administration to launch extra data on the case.
Reuters studies that US district choose Robin Rosenberg discovered that the justice division’s request in Florida didn’t fall into any of the exceptions to guidelines requiring grand jury materials be saved secret.
Share
Up to date at 15.33 EDT
The brand new images and movies printed by CNN have emerged right now in a context of ever-rising frustration in Trump’s White Home over its incapability to make the Epstein story go away. Per Politico:
Donald Trump is offended. His group is exasperated. The Republican-controlled Home is in close to rebel.
Trump and his closest allies thought they’d spend the summer time taking a victory lap, having coaxed Congress into passing the megabill, bullied overseas governments right into a slew of latest commerce preparations, satisfied Nato allies to spend billions extra on collective protection and pressed world leaders to bow to numerous different calls for from Doha to The Hague.
As an alternative, questions surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted intercourse offender, who was discovered lifeless in his jail cell by suicide practically six years in the past, are overshadowing virtually every little thing else.”
“POTUS is clearly livid,” an individual near the White Home advised Politico. “It’s the primary time I’ve seen them type of paralyzed.”
A senior White Home official stated the president is annoyed together with his employees’s incapability to tamp down conspiracy theories they as soon as unfold and by the wall of media protection that began when legal professional normal Pam Bondi launched data from the Epstein case that was already within the public area.
“He feels there are means greater tales that deserve consideration,” the senior White Home official stated.
The frustration stems, partly, from an understanding that that is “a vulnerability,” stated a White Home ally. Trump has famously had his finger on the heartbeat of the Republican base for greater than a decade however has, for now, misplaced the power to dominate the narrative. That threatens to undermine the momentum and sense of invincibility the GOP felt initially of the month after they have been on the brink of boast a few slew of latest tax cuts and border funding as their opening pitch to voters forward of the 2026 midterms.
Share
Up to date at 14.17 EDT
New images and movies spotlight shut ties between Epstein and Trump
Anna Betts
Newly uncovered images and video footage printed by CNN present extra hyperlinks between the infamous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump, together with Epstein’s attendance at Trump’s marriage ceremony to Marla Maples on the Plaza lodge in New York in 1993.
The media group stated on Wednesday that Epstein’s attendance on the marriage ceremony ceremony was not broadly recognized.
CNN additionally printed footage from 1999 of Trump and Epstein attending a Victoria’s Secret trend occasion in New York, the place they’re seen speaking and laughing alongside Trump’s future spouse, Melania Trump.
The outlet famous that the newly printed materials pre-dates any of Epstein’s recognized authorized troubles.
Donald Trump, Ingrid Seynhaeve and Jeffrey Epstein at a Victoria’s Secret Angels occasion in New York on 28 April 1997. {Photograph}: Sonia Moskowitz/Getty Pictures
CNN additionally printed images of Trump and Epstein on the 1993 opening of the Harley-Davidson Cafe in New York, the place Trump is seen together with his arm round two of his kids, Eric and Ivanka, whereas Epstein stands beside them.
When requested for remark by CNN on the newly unearthed movies and images, Trump reportedly responded: “You’ve obtained to be kidding me.” He then reportedly known as CNN “faux information” and hung up the telephone.
Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein attend a Victoria’s Secret Angels occasion sponsored by Rogers & Cowan on the membership Quilt in New York Metropolis on 9 April 1997. {Photograph}: Thomas Concordia/Getty Pictures
Steven Cheung, the White Home communications director, stated in an announcement to CNN that the movies and images have been “nothing greater than out-of-context body grabs of innocuous movies and footage of broadly attended occasions to disgustingly infer one thing nefarious”.
“The very fact is that the President kicked him out of his membership for being a creep,” Cheung added. “That is nothing greater than a continuation of the faux information tales concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media.”
ShareAnna Betts
The Trump administration’s Division of Training introduced on Wednesday that it has opened national-origin discrimination investigations into 5 US universities over what it described as “alleged exclusionary scholarships referencing foreign-born college students”.
In accordance with the announcement, the division’s workplace for civil rights has opened investigations into the College of Louisville, the College of Nebraska Omaha, the College of Miami, the College of Michigan and Western Michigan College.
The division stated that the investigations will decide whether or not these universities are granting scholarships solely to college students who’re recipients of the Deferred Motion for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) program, who got here to the US as kids, or who’re undocumented “in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964’s (Title VI) prohibition towards nationwide origin discrimination”.
The investigation stems from complaints submitted by the Authorized Rebellion Basis’s Equal Safety Challenge, a conservative authorized group.
The group alleges within the complaints that sure scholarships at these colleges are restricted to college students with Daca standing or who’re undocumented, which they argue is in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 “and its implementing laws by illegally discriminating towards college students based mostly on their nationwide origin”.
For the complete story, click on right here:
Share
