Bloomberg News reports on Harvard University’s pushback to demands from the Trump administration and the resulting retribution. CNN examines how other universities have responded. And Wesleyan president Michael Roth talks about his own approach. The Wall Street Journal’s Yaroslav Trofimov joins to discuss how some U.S. allies are hedging their bets in a trade war with China. As the White House and El Salvador have declined to help return Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States, PBS Newshour looks at conditions inside the prison in which he is being held. CBS’s 60 Minutes finds that a large majority of individuals deported from the U.S. to that prison do not have criminal records. Plus, Trump looks to rescind public-media funding, another Columbia student is detained by ICE, and how some Californians knew an earthquake was coming seconds before it hit. Today’s episode was hosted by Shumita Basu.
Full Episode
Good morning. It's Wednesday, April 16th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, how U.S. allies are recalibrating after the tariff ramp up and roll back. What we know about conditions at the mega prison in El Salvador, where many deportees have been sent. And how many people in California knew an earthquake was coming seconds before it hit.
But first, to President Trump's escalating attacks on colleges and universities. Harvard President Alan Garber announced Monday that the university will, quote, not surrender its independence to comply with Trump's demands to change its hiring, admissions, and curriculum. Federal officials moved swiftly to punish the school.
Trump threatened Harvard's tax-exempt status, and the government says it's freezing over $2.2 billion in contracts and grants. a move that will most likely impact research at Harvard and the university-affiliated hospital system. Harvard is the oldest and richest university in the country, which gives it some unique leverage that other schools don't have.
And it's now the very first school to hold its ground against the administration's demands. The administration is targeting schools that it claims allowed anti-Semitism to go unchecked at campus protests last year against Israel's war in Gaza, and is pressuring these schools to do things like get rid of DEI initiatives.
At least seven universities have been threatened with federal funding cuts in recent weeks, but the full list of schools under government scrutiny is actually much larger. A total of 60 received letters from the U.S. Department of Education last month warning them of potential federal action.
Notably, Columbia University agreed to the administration's demands in an attempt to preserve some federal funding. Columbia's interim president, who has since resigned, put new restrictions on face masks on campus, gave more power to security officers to remove or arrest people, and changed leadership of its Middle Eastern Studies department.
The administration paused $400 million in funding anyway. Professors at Columbia held a rally on Monday, demanding that the school do more to stand up to Trump. Here are professors Adina Bargad and Joseph Hawley speaking at that rally.
We risk turning this university from a place of discovery into a tool of political ideology and enforcement.
So now we need to ask our leadership, why can't you show the same kind of backbone and principles as the leadership at Harvard and Princeton?
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