The Latest: Administration bars Harvard from having foreign students, says thousands must transfer
By The Associated Press
The Trump administration revoked Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students in its escalating battle with the Ivy League school, saying thousands of current students must transfer to other schools or leave the country. The Department of Homeland Security said the university allowed “anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators” to assault Jewish students on campus and claimed without evidence that Harvard is coordinating with the Chinese communist party.
In a separate court case, District Judge Jeffrey S. White in Oakland blocked the Trump administration from terminating the legal status of international students nationwide while a court case challenging previous terminations is pending. The order bars the government from arresting or incarcerating the plaintiffs and similarly situated students, transferring any of them outside the jurisdiction of their residence, imposing any adverse legal effect on students, and reversing the reinstatement of the legal status until the case is resolved.
Here’s the latest:
FTC dismisses lawsuit against PepsiCo that was filed by Biden-era FTC
The Republican-controlled Federal Trade Commission voted to dismiss a lawsuit against PepsiCo that the previous commission filed in the waning days of the previous administration.
The lawsuit, filed in January, alleged that PepsiCo was giving unfair price advantages to Walmart at the expense of other vendors and consumers. The complaint relied on a rarely enforced act that it said prohibits companies from using promotional incentive payments to favor large customers over smaller ones.
When the lawsuit was filed, Democrat Lina Khan was the FTC’s chairwoman, and she was joined in support of the lawsuit by Democratic Commissioners Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya. Republican Commissioners Andrew Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak dissented.
A few days after it was filed, President Donald Trump took office and Khan resigned. Trump fired Bedoya and Slaughter in March; they have sued, saying their removal was illegal.
Ferguson, who is now chairman, said Thursday that the lawsuit was a “dubious partisan stunt” and FTC staff have more important work.
FDA panel is split on updates to COVID shots as questions loom for fall vaccinations
Government advisers were split Thursday on whether drugmakers need to update their COVID-19 vaccines for next season, a decision overshadowed by confusion over a new Trump administration policy that may limit who can get the shots.
The Food and Drug Administration’s outside experts have met annually since the launch of the first COVID-19 vaccines to discuss tweaking their recipes to stay ahead of the virus. The challenge is trying to gauge how the virus might evolve before fall vaccinations begin.
“We all want to make the perfect choice, and that’s probably not possible,” FDA’s Jerry Weir told the panel of outside experts.
Some of the panelists voiced support for a switch to a newer coronavirus subtype named LP.8.1. It’s currently the dominant version and part of the same family that circulated last year — known as the JN.1 branch of the virus family tree.
▶ Read more about the vaccines
Awkward ending to Trump’s health event
The president wrapped up by speaking at length about his effort to lower prescription drug prices — an odd choice, given that many of the people in the room oppose pharmaceutical drugs and what they see as their excessive prescription.
The East Room crowd, which earlier had applauded repeatedly as Trump and members of his administration congratulated themselves on health policy, offered only tepid responses — and soon stopped clapping entirely — as Trump continued to talk about drug prices.
Toward the back, where many attendees were families with young children, some parents even began talking among themselves while he was still speaking.
Everyone did, however, rise to give the president a standing ovation when the event finally wrapped up.
New SSA Commissioner says he had to Google his new job. The agency says he was joking
On a Wednesday phone call to introduce himself to agency managers, Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano said he had to Google the role of Social Security Commissioner when he was offered the position by the Trump administration. The comment was confirmed by two individuals who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the meeting.
A spokesperson for Social Security said via email that Bisignano was poking fun at himself so everyone in the room felt comfortable having an open conversation about improving service.
“Commissioner Bisignano brings a valuable and much-needed outside perspective to the Social Security Administration,” Liz Huston, a White House spokeswoman said in an email to AP. Bisignano’s “proven success in the financial services industry uniquely positions him to lead the Trump Administration’s commonsense efforts to modernize the agency and improve its efficiency.”
The SSA is undergoing massive changes and staffing cuts ushered. Roughly 72.5 million people, including retirees and children, receive Social Security benefits.
Bisignano is a former Wall Street executive and previously served as chairman of Fiserv, a payments and financial services tech firm.
— Fatima Hussein
Supreme Court declines to reinstate independent agency board members fired by Trump
The high court declined to reinstate independent agency board members fired by the president.
The court’s action essentially extended an order Chief Justice John Roberts issued in April that had the effect of removing two board members whom Trump fired from agencies that deal with labor issues, including one with a key role for federal workers as the president aims to drastically downsize the workforce.
Neither agency has enough appointed members to take final actions on issues before them, as Trump has not sought to appoint replacements.
The decision Thursday keeps on hold an appellate ruling that had temporarily reinstated Gwynne Wilcox to the National Labor Relations Board and Cathy Harris to the Merit Systems Protection Board.
The court’s three liberal justices dissented.
US to impose sanctions on Sudan for chemical weapons use
The Trump administration says it will impose the sanctions after determining that Sudan has used chemical weapons in violation of international treaties during its civil war in 2024.
The State Department said Thursday that the sanctions would take effect next month and include restrictions on U.S. exports to Sudan and on access to U.S. government lines of credit.
“The United States calls on the government of Sudan to cease all chemical weapons use and uphold its obligations under the” Chemical Weapons Convention, the department said in a statement. “The United States remains fully committed to hold to account those responsible for contributing to chemical weapons proliferation.”
The State Department informed Congress of the determination, and lawmakers will have 15 days to consider it. Barring objections, the department said, the sanctions will take effect on or around June 6.
Trump’s $600 million war chest: How he plans to wield his power in the midterms and beyond
Between a barrage of executive orders, foreign trips and norm-shattering proclamations, Donald Trump has also been busy raking in cash.
The president has amassed a war chest of at least $600 million in political donations heading into the midterm elections, according to three people familiar with the matter. It’s an unprecedented sum in modern politics, particularly for a lame-duck president who is barred by the U.S. Constitution from running again.
President Donald Trump smiles as he speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, May 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Trump is keeping an aggressive fundraising schedule with the ultimate goal of raising $1 billion or more to back his agenda and hold the House and Senate next November, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to share internal details of the fundraising efforts.
The preoccupation with fundraising might seem highly unusual for a president who was notably averse to dialing for dollars when he first ran. But according to people familiar with his thinking, it makes perfect sense: By amassing money, Trump amasses power.
▶ Read more about Trump’s $1 billion fundraising goal
Trump praises MAHA report
Trump, at an event at the White House with Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, applauded the findings of the MAHA report Thursday.
“They really are alarming,” Trump said.
The much-anticipated “Make America Healthy Again” report calls for increased scrutiny of the childhood vaccine schedule, a review of the pesticides sprayed on American crops and a description of the nation’s children as overmedicated and undernourished.
While it does not have the force of a law or official policy, the 69-page report will be used over the next 100 days for the MAHA commission to fashion a plan that can be implemented during the remainder of Trump’s term, Kennedy said in a call with reporters. He refused to provide details about who authored the report.
Lawmakers ask major hotel chains not to use the term ‘Taiwan, China’
A pair of Republican lawmakers have asked major hotel chains to stop using the term “Taiwan, China” on their websites, seven years after the U.S. hotel chain Marriott had its website shut down in China over its listing Taiwan as a country.
Now, CEOs of Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt hotels are being asked that they correct course and follow the U.S. policy on Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing claims to be part of Chinese territory.
The U.S. takes no side on the island’s sovereignty but opposes any forced takeover of the island.
In a letter, Rep. John Moolenaar and Sen. Marsha Blackburn raised concerns that the U.S. hotel chains now label the island as “Taiwan, China” and said “such labeling contradicts longstanding U.S. policy and lends false legitimacy to the Chinese Communist Party’s claims over Taiwan.”
White House says judge’s ruling could jeopardize U.S. relations overseas
The White House says a federal judge who rebuked the Trump administration over a series of deportations is menacing U.S. relationships overseas.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt rejected the comments of federal Judge Brian Murphy, who said Wednesday that the Trump administration violated a court order on deportations to third countries with a flight linked to South Sudan.
Murphy said eight migrants aboard the plane were not given a meaningful opportunity to object to their deportation.
Leavitt said Thursday that “Judge Murphy is forcing federal officials to remain in Djibouti for over two weeks as a result.”
She said the judge’s comments were also “threatening our U.S. diplomatic relationships with countries around the world” though she refused to discuss what other third countries might have agreed to accept U.S. deportation flights.
Federal judge blocks immigration authorities from revoking international students’ legal status
A judge in California has blocked the Trump administration from terminating the legal status of international students nationwide while a court case challenging previous terminations plays out.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White on Thursday barred the government from reversing the students’ legal status, arresting or transferring them until the case is resolved. They could still be arrested in cases like violent crimes.
White said the government’s actions “wreaked havoc not only on the lives of Plaintiffs here but on similarly situated F-1 nonimmigrants across the United States and continues do so.”
Trump administration says thousands of international students enrolled at Harvard must transfer or leave the US
The Trump administration revoked Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students in its escalating battle with the Ivy League school, saying thousands of current students must transfer to other schools or leave the country.
The Department of Homeland Security announced the action Thursday, saying Harvard has created an unsafe campus environment by allowing “anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators” to assault Jewish students on campus. Without offering evidence, it also accused Harvard of coordinating with the Chinese communist party.
“This means Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status,” the agency said in a statement.
Harvard enrolls almost 6,800 foreign students at its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, accounting for more than a quarter of its student body. Most are graduate students, coming from more than 100 countries.
Republican tax bill guts clean energy tax credits that Democrats approved three years ago in climate law
The big tax breaks package passed by House Republicans early Thursday would gut clean energy tax credits that Democrats approved three years ago while supporting increased mining, drilling and other traditional energy production.
The bill, which now heads to the Senate, repeals or phases out more quickly clean energy tax credits passed in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act during former President Joe Biden’s term. Biden’s climate law has been considered monumental for the clean energy transition, but the House bill effectively renders moot much of the law’s incentives for renewable energy such as wind and solar power.
Clean energy advocates said the bill walks back the largest government investment in clean energy in history.
Netanyahu links shooting of Israeli Embassy staffers to antisemitism and Oct. 7 attacks
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the shooting of two of his country’s embassy staff in Washington, D.C. was a “horrific” act of antisemitic violence.
“Yaron and Sarah weren’t the victims of a random crime,” Netanyahu said. “The terrorist who cruelly gunned them down did so for one reason and one reason alone — he wanted to kill Jews.”
In a video released by his office Thursday, speaking in English, he said the two staffers were planning to get engaged during a trip to Jerusalem next week.
Netanyahu said the suspect shouted “Free Palestine” as he was taken away, drawing a direct line between the shooting and the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. “This is exactly the same chant we heard on October 7th.”
Netanyahu concluded the video by saying, “I especially want to thank President Trump and the American people for their forthright stand with Israel and with the Jewish people.”
Leavitt says Trump signs every legal document
In response to questions about former President Joe Biden’s use of the autopen to sign some documents, Leavitt said that Trump signs “any document that has legal implications.”
“He signs pretty much every document that is needed for the president’s signature, with the exception of maybe some letters to children,” she said.
But one of Trump’s most controversial acts, invoking the 18th-centruy wartime Alien Enemies Act to deport migrants, was something that Trump later claimed he didn’t sign.
“I don’t know when it was signed, because I didn’t sign it,” Trump told reporters in March.
Trump and Netanyahu discuss Israel embassy staffer shooting and Iran
The two leaders spoke by phone on Thursday following Wednesday evening’s shooting that killed two Israeli embassy staffers outside a Washington reception.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the two leaders also discussed “a potential deal” with Iran to stem its rapidly advancing nuclear program. Trump is expected to dispatch special envoy Steve Witkoff to Italy for talks later this week with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi.
Leavitt said Trump believes the talks “moving along in the right direction.”
Trump administration files motion to end protections for immigrant children in federal custody
The Trump administration filed a motion on Thursday to end a policy cornerstone that since the 1990s has offered protections to child migrants in federal custody, in a move that likely will be challenged by advocates.
The protections in place, known as the Flores Settlement, largely limit to 72 hours the amount of time that child migrants traveling alone or with family and detained by the U.S. Border Patrol can be kept in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody. They also ensure the children are kept in safe and sanitary conditions.
The Flores settlement is named for a Salvadoran girl, Jenny Flores, whose lawsuit alleging widespread mistreatment of children in custody in the 1980s prompted special oversight.
This is the second time the federal government under Trump has attempted to end the policy. In August 2019, the first Trump administration asked a judge to dissolve the agreement. Its motion eventually was struck down in December 2020 by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
White House condemns judge who said US violated court order
Leavitt used her press briefing to attack by name the federal judge who ruled that the White House violated a court order on deportations to third countries, calling Judge Brian E. Murphy in Boston a “liberal activist” and accusing the jurist of threatening U.S. diplomatic relationships.
“Judge Brian Murphy is not the secretary of State. He is not the secretary of defense or the commander in chief. He is a district court judge in Massachusetts. He cannot control the foreign policy or the national security of the United States of America, and to suggest otherwise is being completely absurd,” Leavitt said.
Trump to attend Group of 7 Summit next month
The president will take part in a gathering in Calgary, Canada, from June 15 to June 17 with leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
Trump is ‘saddened and outraged’ by the shooting deaths of two Israeli embassy staffers
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump had spoken to Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice will prosecute the alleged gunman to the “fullest extent” of the law.
Leavitt said “hatred has no place in the United States of America” under Trump.
She said the entire White House staff was “praying for the victims’ friends and families at this unimaginable time.”
The first lady’s new audiobook is in her own voice — but she didn’t narrate it
Instead, Melania Trump said Thursday, she used artificial intelligence to generate a replica of her voice reading her memoir, “Melania.”
The 7-hour-long voiced read was created with technology from ElevenLabs, a startup that has helped other people mimic their own voices when medical issues rob them of their speech.
The company’s technology also was used to make the audio behind AI robocalls imitating former President Joe Biden that misled voters during the 2024 election.
The first lady’s embrace of AI for her book comes as her husband has said he wants to limit regulations on the technology that could hinder innovation. The president and first lady also recently signed the Take It Down Act, a measure that imposes penalties for online sexual exploitation, including through AI deepfakes.
Hundreds of state lawmakers urge Congressional leaders to keep hands off Planned Parenthood funding
As House Republicans passed their multitrillion-dollar budget bill overnight, 562 state lawmakers signed a letter to Congressional leadership urging them not to prohibit Medicaid funds from going to Planned Parenthood and calling the organization “an integral and irreplaceable part of the health care system.”
″‘Defunding’ Planned Parenthood blocks patients from getting the care they need and increases health care costs for everyone,” the letter said.
Anti-abortion groups have long taken aim at Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid funding through a mounting initiative called Defund Planned Parenthood.
The federal Hyde Amendment already restricts government funding for most abortions, and less than 5% of the services Planned Parenthood provides are abortions, according to the organization’s 2023 annual report. Contraceptive services and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections make up the vast majority of its medical care. It also performs more cancer screening and prevention procedures than abortions, according to the report.
Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff to lead US delegation to next round of nuclear talks with Iran
That’s according to an American official familiar with the matter who spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity to discuss an upcoming private diplomatic meeting.
Witkoff and the State Department’s director of policy planning Michael Anton will attend Friday’s talks in Rome that had been announced earlier by Oman’s foreign minister whose country has been mediating the talks, the official said.
The talks, which will be the fifth round of direct and indirect discussions, are expected to be held at the Omani embassy in the Italian capital.
— Matthew Lee
The US government will no longer make cents
The U.S. Mint has made its final order of penny blanks and plans to stop making the coin when those run out, a Treasury official confirmed Thursday.
The move is expected to produce an immediate annual savings of $56 million in reduced material costs, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the news.
In February, President Trump announced he ordered his administration to cease production of the 1-cent coin.
Advocates for ditching the penny cite its high production cost — currently almost 4 cents per penny, according to the U.S. Mint — and limited utility. Fans of the penny cite its usefulness in charity drives and relative bargain in production costs compared with the nickel, which costs almost 14 cents to mint.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the news.
— Fatima Hussein
Nonprofits sue Justice Department over canceled criminal justice and victims group grants
The five organizations that had grants terminated by the U.S. Department of Justice in April are suing the department and Attorney General Pam Bondi calling the cancellations unconstitutional and asking that the money be reinstated.
The lawsuit filed late Wednesday by the Vera Institute of Justice, the Center for Children & Youth Justice, Chinese for Affirmative Action, FORCE Detroit and Health Resources in Action, asks a federal judge to vacate the midstream grant cancellations.
They ask the court to award class status to the awardees for the more than 360 grants initially worth $820 million that were canceled last month, naming both the Office of Justice Programs and its acting agency head as additional defendants.
Judge blocks Trump administration’s mass layoffs at the Education Department
The federal judge on Thursday blocked Trump’s executive order to shut down the Education Department and ordered the agency to reinstate employees who were fired in mass layoffs.
U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston granted a preliminary injunction stopping the Trump administration from carrying out two plans announced in March that sought to work toward Trump’s goal to dismantle the department. It marks a setback to one of the Republican president’s campaign promises.
▶ Read more about Trump’s effort to shut down the Education Department
Democrats decry Trump’s crypto dinner as selling access to the White House
The dinner Trump is hosting at his suburban Washington golf club is for top investors in a meme coin controlled by his family.
Sen Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, says the dinner means “in effect putting a for sale sign on the White House.”
“It’s auctioning off access,” Blumenthal said on a press call.
The senator said those attending Thursday night’s dinner don’t have to file any federal paperwork — despite enriching the Trump Organization — because crypto currency isn’t regulated like traditional campaign donations.
Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts said during a contentious House hearing earlier this month, “Never in American history has a sitting president so blatantly violated the ethics laws.”
United Arab Emirates condemns fatal shooting of Israeli Embassy staffers
In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its condolences and solidarity with the families of the victims and with the Israeli people over the attack.
The UAE agreed to normalize relations with Israel in a U.S.-brokered deal in 2020, the first of the so-called Abraham Accords that Israel eventually concluded with four Arab nations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken with parents of slain embassy staffers
Netanyahu “told the families that he shares in their deep sorrow, together with the entire Jewish People,” his office said in a statement.
The prime minister also spoke with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, his office said.
US envoy to Israel calls Israel embassy staffer killings an ‘act of terror’
“It is just a horrific tragedy, an act of terror, and another way in which we have to recognize Jewish people all over the world are being singled out for these kind of horrible attacks,” U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee said in an interview on Fox & Friends.
Huckabee went on to push back against critics of Israel’s execution of the war in Gaza, blaming Hamas for the war dragging on.
“We’ve got a lot of ignorant, idiotic people who don’t seem to understand the difference between right and wrong,” Huckabee said. “It shouldn’t be that complicated.”
The crypto industry saw Trump as a champion. Some now fear he’s putting personal profits first
It seems like a triumph for a cryptocurrency industry that has long sought mainstream acceptance: Top investors in one of President Trump’s crypto projects invited to dine with him at his luxury golf club in Northern Virginia on the heels of the Senate advancing key pro-crypto legislation and while bitcoin prices soar.
But Thursday night’s dinner for the 220 biggest investors in the $TRUMP meme coin has raised uncomfortable questions about potentially shadowy buyers using the anonymity of the internet to buy access to the president.
While Democrats charge that Trump is using the power of the presidency to boost profits for his family business, even some pro-Trump crypto enthusiasts worry that the president’s push into meme coins isn’t helping their efforts to establish the credibility, stability and legitimacy they had thought his administration would bring to their businesses.
▶ Read more about Trump and crypto
