Author: Sara William

Harvard University stands to lose billions in federal funding, but the government’s actions against one of the world’s top research institutions were applied with vague accusations and no proof of specific legal violations, documents show. The Trump administration’s decision Monday to freeze $2.2 billion to Harvard after the school announced it would not yield to demands to change admissions, hiring and governance practices did not follow procedures set out in civil rights law, a Post review found. Trump administration officials have publicly said that Harvard has violated students’ civil rights and mentioned Title VI, which is the federal law that says any school found…

The Internal Revenue Service is weighing whether to revoke Harvard’s tax exemption, according to three people familiar with the matter, which would be a significant escalation of the Trump administration’s attempts to choke off federal money and support for the leading research university. President Trump on Tuesday publicly called for Harvard to pay taxes, continuing a standoff in which the administration has demanded the university revamp its hiring and admissions practices and its curriculum. Some I.R.S. officials have told colleagues that the Treasury Department on Wednesday asked the agency to consider revoking Harvard’s tax-exempt status, according to two of the people, who…

President Trump came into office sounding as if he were eager to deal with President Xi Jinping of China on the range of issues dividing the world’s two biggest superpowers. He and his aides signaled that they wanted to resolve trade disputes and lower the temperature on Taiwan, curb fentanyl production and get to a deal on TikTok. Perhaps, over time, they could manage a revived nuclear arms race and competition over artificial intelligence. Today it is hard to imagine any of that happening, at least for a year. Mr. Trump’s decision to stake everything on winning a trade war…

The Trump administration acted quickly on Monday to punish Harvard University after it refused to comply with a list of demands from the federal government that the school said were unlawful. On Monday afternoon, Harvard became the first university to refuse to comply with the administration’s requirements, setting up a showdown between the federal government and the nation’s wealthiest university. By the evening, federal officials said they would freeze $2.2 billion in multiyear grants to Harvard, along with a $60 million contract. Other universities have pushed back against the administration’s interference in higher education. But Harvard’s response, which called the…

The world’s two largest powers are closer to a full economic break than ever, as President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping refuse to back down in a trade war that has become a high-stakes game of chicken — raising the specter of mass economic fallout and heightened risk of conflict between Washington and Beijing. A week after Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs roiled global markets, his administration has put China in its crosshairs, shifting his global trade war from a crusade against what he called foreign freeloading to a winner-takes-all confrontation with Beijing. China on Friday countered Washington’s levies by…

Keir Starmer was back at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday to watch Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Real Madrid, a result that far exceeded expectations of his team’s chances in Europe. And, over the next few days, I wouldn’t be surprised if he tries to snatch a short Easter break in the warmth and sunshine of that same continent. Football and family holidays offer him some much needed relief from the grim reality of a faltering economy, towering public debt and terrifying global insecurity, which are all being made worse on a daily – sometimes hourly – basis by Britain’s closest ally…

The acting head of the IRS plans to resign after being bypassed over a new agreement to share the tax data of undocumented immigrants with Homeland Security personnel, according to two people familiar with the situation. Acting IRS commissioner Melanie Krause — the tax agency’s third leader since President Donald Trump’s inauguration — will participate in the deferred resignation program the Trump administration offered to agency employees in recent days, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. Disagreements over the agency’s direction also factored into Krause’s decision to leave, the people said. Losing…

At least half of the front-line lawyers in the elite Justice Department office that represents the Trump administration at the Supreme Court are preparing to leave or have already announced their departures — an unusually high amount of turnover at a time of intense litigation involving the president’s initiatives. The people planning to leave the solicitor general’s office have various reasons, according to several people close to the workforce, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss upcoming personnel changes. Many are uncomfortable or turned off by directives from Justice Department leaders, including Attorney General Pam Bondi’s demand for “zealous…

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he will impose a new 10 percent tariff on all imported goods along with higher import taxes tailored for each of about 60 countries that his advisers say maintain the largest barriers against U.S. products, in a sharp turn toward the kind of protectionism that the United States abandoned nearly a century ago. To impose the new tariffs, the president declared a national emergency, citing the annual merchandise trade deficit that the United States has run each year since 1975. “For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near…

When the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approached in 2009, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey assembled an Archive Committee to collect, catalog and disseminate material recovered from the World Trade Center site. The collection reflected the range of victims of the attacks: broken eyeglasses and office supplies from those who worked in the buildings, crushed fire and police vehicles from those who raced in to save them. But most of the collection was metal: 7,000 tons of steel from the Twin Towers themselves, stored in a hangar at JFK airport in Queens, New York. This trove…