Harvard University, the world-renowned institution emblematic of the elitism that Trump and his coterie hold in contempt, received an extortive demand from the administration that it surrender the core of its academic freedoms – and promptly told it to get lost.

Echoing pressures imposed on other elite colleges, notably Columbia University, the Trump team – representing the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services, and the General Services Administration – had demanded sweeping reforms in how Harvard is run, including the installation of viewpoint-diverse faculty members and the end of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes.

The backdrop to a demand for what would be unprecedented government interference in the affairs of the world’s richest university is the alleged rise of campus antisemitism, arising from an upsurge of pro-Palestinian demonstrations that have gripped Harvard and other colleges following Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel and Israel’s r

Elon Musk was roundly mocked on social media after attempting to spin his defeat in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race into a win for voters' rights.

That was already the law in Wisconsin, and Question 1 just protected it in the state's Constitution. However, Musk had long focused on the state's Supreme Court race and talked little about Question 1. He often posted on social media about the dangers or electing a liberal judge and poured $25 million into the state to support the conservative candidate.
However, Musk's pick lost to the liberal candidate.

That led to Musk's post on X downplaying the loss - and the round of mocking that followed.

The DOGE leader had also traveled to Wisconsin two days before the race to personally hand voters $1 million checks after giving a speech in which he wore a cheesehead hat.

“The long con of the left is corruption of the judiciary,” the Tesla billionaire posted on X on Tuesday night.

Wednesday’s win by Democratic candidate Susan Crawford,

A US federal judge has questioned why the Trump administration failed to obey his order halting the deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members.
White House officials argued in a court filing that they did not defy the ruling. The argued in part that because Boasberg's order was made orally rather than in written form, it was not enforceable - and that the planes had already left the US by the time it was issued.

During a hearing on Monday, Boasberg said he clearly ordered the government to turn the planes around. "You're saying that you felt you could disregard it because it wasn't in a written order?" he asked Department of Justice lawyers.

After lawyers told the judge that planes with deportees already had taken off, he reportedly gave a verbal order for the flights to turn back "immediately", although that directive was not included in a written ruling published shortly thereafter. Nonetheless, a timeline of events reported by US media suggests the Trump administration

Mahmoud Khalil, a recent graduate student at Columbia University and green-card holder, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers over the weekend in what is likely one of the first high-profile detentions of a student who participated in the protests against the Israel-Hamas war.

The arrest follows through on one of President Trump's executive actions, which directed the government to use all of its tools to punish those who have engaged in "antisemitic harassment and violence." The executive action cites the federal law that authorizes deporting a foreign national who "endorses or espouses terrorist activity."

In a social media post on Monday, Trump said the arrest was the first of many to come. He vowed that his administration "will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again."

People dance and wave large Israeli flags during a rally against campus antisemitism at George Washington University in May 2024 i

The court currently has a 6-3 conservative supermajority, but both Barrett and Roberts have at times broken ranks and voted with the court's liberal wing in rulings that have infuriated the MAGA base.

The high court handed the U.S. president a significant setback when it ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration must abide by a lower court order to unfreeze $2 billion in foreign aid.

The aid was blocked after Trump signed an executive action his first day in office ordering the funding freeze while his administration scoured U.S. spending for what Trump and his allies characterize as "waste, fraud and abuse."

A lower court judge subsequently ordered the administration to unblock the aid in response to a lawsuit filed by nonprofit organizations in connection to the Trump administration's freezing of foreign assistance through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department.

In a 5-4 ruling on Wednesday, Barrett and Roberts joined Justices Sonia Sot

Donald Trump just imposed a 25 percent tariff on virtually all goods produced by America’s two largest trading partners — Canada and Mexico. He simultaneously established a 20 percent across-the-board tariff on Chinese goods.

As a result, America’s average tariff level is now higher than at any time since the 1940s.

Meanwhile, China and Canada immediately retaliated against Trump’s duties, with the former imposing a 15 percent tariff on American agricultural products and the latter putting a 25 percent tariff on $30 billion of US goods. Mexico has vowed to mount retaliatory tariffs of its own.

This trade war could have far-reaching consequences. Trump’s tariffs have already triggered a stock market sell-off and cooling of manufacturing activity. And economists have estimated that the trade policy will cost the typical US household more than $1,200 a year, as the prices of myriad goods rise.

All this raises the question: Why has the US president chosen to upend trade relations on th

As the title states, Trump's address to Congress - in pictures.

Democratic lawmakers are discussing a litany of options to protest at President Trump's speech to Congress on Tuesday, including through outright disruption, a half dozen House Democrats told Axios.

Why it matters: Some of these tactics go beyond their leaders' recommendation that members bring guests hurt by Trump and DOGE. This sets up a potential clash between party traditionalists and its more combative anti-Trump wing.

• "The part that we all agree on is that this is not business as usual and we would like to find a way — productively — to express our outrage," one House Democrat told Axios.
• There is widespread disagreement among Democrats, both inside and outside of Congress, over what would be the most appropriate and effective form of demonstration.

A wide array of props — including noisemakers — has also been floated:

• Signs with anti-Trump or anti-DOGE messages — just as Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) held up a sign during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's s

Nigel Farage has been accused of acting as “Donald Trump’s spokesman in Britain” for refusing to criticize his ally after the US president bullied and belittled Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office last Friday.

Condemning the Reform leader, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “Nigel Farage is once again showing his true colours as Trump's own spokesman here in Britain.

"Zelensky showed courage and integrity in that room - in stark contrast to Farage’s cowardly approach of licking Trump’s boots.

And the Conservatives said Mr Zelensky is a hero who has “stood up to Putin’s aggression and led his country’s defence against their barbaric and illegal invasion”.

“It is troubling to not hear the leader of Reform say that,” shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel said. She added: “For Nigel Farage to sit there pointing the finger at Zelenskyy is both morally wrong and diplomatically counterproductive.

Labour MP Blair McDougall, a member of the foreign affairs committee, told The

President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Friday designating English as the official language of the United States, according to the White House.

The order will allow government agencies and organizations that receive federal funding to choose whether to continue to offer documents and services in language other than English, according to a fact sheet about the impending order.

Designating English as the national language “promotes unity, establishes efficiency in government operations, and creates a pathway for civic engagement,” according to the White House.

Within hours of Trump’s inauguration last month, the new administration took down the Spanish language version of the official White House website.

Hispanic advocacy groups and others expressed confusion and frustration at the change. The White House said at the time it was committed to bringing the Spanish language version of the website back online. As of Friday, it was still not restored.

Organic farmers and environmental groups sued the Agriculture Department on Monday over its scrubbing of references to climate change from its website.

The department had ordered staff to take down pages focused on climate change on Jan. 30, according to the suit, which was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Within hours, it said, information started disappearing.

At the same time, the department also froze funding that had been promised to businesses and nonprofits through conservation and climate programs. The purge then “removed critical information about these programs from the public record, denying farmers access to resources they need to advocate for funds they are owed,” it said.

Peter Lehner, a lawyer for Earthjustice, said the pages being purged were crucial for farmers facing risks linked to climate change, including heat waves, droughts, floods, extreme weather and wildfires. The websites had contained information about how t

In a televised roundtable later Sunday evening, Merz also criticized US “intervention” in the German election campaign in recent days. “The interventions from Washington were no less dramatic and drastic and ultimately outrageous than the interventions we have seen from Moscow,” he said. “We are under such massive pressure from two sides that my top priority is to create unity in Europe.”
He continued, “My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA.”
“I would never have believed that I would have to say something like that on television. But at the very least, after Donald Trump’s statements last week, it is clear that the Americans - at least this part of the Americans in this administration - are largely indifferent to the fate of Europe,” he said.

An example for me - the story of Luz Long and Jesse Owens' friendship forged during the 1936 Berlin Games attended by Hitler.

Jesse Owens did not fit the Nazi ideology of the superiority of the Aryan “master race” because of his color. Hitler refused to personally congratulate Jesse after his wins, and neither did US President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Jesse had fouled twice while attempting to qualify for the long jump event. He had only one attempt left. Luz shared a technique with Jesse that helped him to qualify on his last jump. In the finals of the long jump competition Jesse jumped 8.06 meters to win; Luz finished second with a jump of 7.87 meters. Luz was the first to congratulate him. After the award ceremony (see photo at the top of this story), Jesse and Luz walked arm in arm through the Berlin Olympic Stadium.

Jesse and Luz became friends at the Olympics and corresponded for years after that. Jesse would say of his Olympic friendship with Luz, “It took a lot of

Blunt Rochester: Do you believe that any school benefiting from taxpayer dollars should be required to follow federal civil rights laws?

McMahon: Schools should be required to follow the laws.

Blunt Rochester: Anybody getting taxpayer dollars. That’s good. So private schools shouldn’t be able to turn away a student with a disability? Or a student based on their religion, or their ethnicity or race?

McMahon: Well, private schools aren’t taking federal dollars. So they have the ability to say that if they do not believe—

Blunt Rochester: They do receive them. They should not.

McMahon: Well, if they believe that they cannot best serve that student, and they are not taking federal dollars, then they have the right not to accept that student.

Blunt Rochester: But I’m speaking specifically, when we talk about—there’s a lot of conversation about vouchers. If private schools take federal dollars, can they turn away a child based on a disability or religion or race?

McMahon: Well I think

Vice President Vance on Friday chided European leaders for their criticism of Elon Musk wading into their elections, comparing Musk’s actions to Swedish activist Greta Thunberg urging American leaders to take action on climate change.

“I believe that dismissing people, dismissing their concerns, or worse yet, shutting down media, shutting down elections or shutting people out of the political process protects nothing. In fact, it is the most surefire way to destroy democracy,” Vance said.

“And speaking up and expressing opinions isn’t election interference, even when people express views outside your own country, and even when those people are very influential,” he continued. “And trust me, I say this with all humor: If American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thunberg’s scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk.”

Before becoming president, Trump sued CBS over 60 Minutes' interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris shortly before the election. Now, Trump's newly elevated Federal Communications Commission chairman, Brendan Carr, is using the levers of government to put pressure on the network.

"Now, more than ever, only a fearless press stands between an aggressive [White House] and the public," former CBS News correspondent Marvin Kalb posted on a Facebook page for CBS alumni. "If news organizations such as CBS bend a knee before a president, then we have all taken a big step towards autocracy."

Please state in which country your phrase tends to be used, what the phrase is, and what it should be.

Example:

In America, recently came across "back-petal", instead of back-pedal. Also, still hearing "for all intensive purposes" instead of "for all intents and purposes".

Trope: Police have to keep bad guy talking on the phone long enough to trace them and find their location. Professional bad guys hang up right before it triangulates their coordinates.

Apparently, Hollywood's been getting this inspiration from a pre-digital age when they use this trope in movies. See link for more info. It's just funny that most of the "tracing the call" scenes I've seen are definitely after the 2000's.

Another link: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2002/10/how-hard-would-it-be-to-trace-the-sniper-s-phone-calls.html

A fun gif: https://i.gifer.com/9QtC.mp4

At this point, is this news ? Though it highlights Trump's politics.

Hey Lemmy!

What's that one song comes on the radio or party and you're filled with joy? Or perhaps it's a carol and it makes you feel alright. What is it?

Then there's the song that makes you flinch and cringe, and you've gotta shut that song down. What is it?

Your favorite and your despised!