The federal government says it’s freezing more than $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts to Harvard University after the institution said it would defy the Trump administration’s demands to limit activism on campus.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has suggested he might temporarily exempt the auto industry from tariffs he previously imposed on the sector, to give carmakers time to adjust their supply chains.
Here's the latest:
US judge to question Trump officials’ refusal to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia
The administration has continued to refuse to retrieve Abrego Garcia from an El Salvador prison, even after the Supreme Court ordered his return to the U.S.
The 4 p.m. hearing in a U.S. District Court comes a day after White House advisers repeated the claim that they lack the authority to bring back the Salvadoran national from his native country. The president of El Salvador also said Monday that he would not return Abrego Garcia, likening it to smuggling “a terrorist into the United States.”
Abrego Garcia, 29, lived in the U.S. for roughly 14 years, during which he worked construction, got married and was raising three children with disabilities, according to court records.
▶ Read more about Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s case
Federal judge bars Trump administration from taking action against student from India
The University of Wisconsin-Madison engineering student is slated to graduate in less than a month.
The order comes as the Trump administration is revoking the legal status of foreign students across the country with little notice.
The judge granted Krish Lal Isserdasani, 21, a temporary restraining order preventing the Trump administration from revoking his student visa or detaining him.
U.S. District Judge William Conley wrote that Isserdasani “was given no warning, no opportunity to explain or defend himself, and no chance to correct any potential misunderstanding before his F-1 student visa record was terminated.”
The judge set a hearing for April 28, less than two weeks before Isserdasani is to graduate.
White House removes aging Kennedy magnolia tree from the Rose Garden due to safety concerns
The National Park Service, in a statement released by the White House, said the more than 60-year-old saucer magnolia was removed from the southwest corner of the garden last Saturday because its condition had steadily declined due to underlying soil issues and root disease.
Certified arborists had confirmed the tree had “entered a state of irreversible decline and needed to be removed for safety.”
The Kennedy magnolia was one of four planted in the corners of the Rose Garden during John F. Kennedy’s administration in March and April of 1962.
A new tree has taken its place.
Last week, a nearly 200-year-old magnolia tree at the south entrance to the White House that dated to Andrew Jackson’s presidency was removed for similar reasons.
NAACP sues Trump administration over efforts to limit diversity, equity and inclusion at schools
The lawsuit challenges actions by the Department of Education threatening federal funding for schools that don’t end DEI programs, saying the department is prohibiting legal efforts to give equal opportunity to Black students.
“In direct conflict with its mission, the Office for Civil Rights has baselessly characterized vital efforts to advance racial equality to themselves be racially discriminatory, thus weaponizing the anti-discrimination laws against the very communities they are meant to protect...
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