Russia is open to peace with Ukraine but insists on achieving its goals, Kremlin says
Peskov and other Russian officials have repeatedly rejected accusations from Kyiv and its Western partners of stalling peace talks. Meanwhile, Moscow continues to intensify its long-range attacks on Ukrainian cities, launching more drones in a single night than it did during some entire months in 2024, and analysts say the barrages are likely to escalate.
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CTV News
7 minutes ago
- CTV News
Harvard seeks billions in funding restored at a pivotal hearing in its standoff with Trump
Ryan Enos, a government professor at Harvard University, speaks at a protest against U.S. President Donald Trump's recent sanctions against Harvard in front of Science Center Plaza on May 27, 2025, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Leah Willingham, File) BOSTON -- Lawyers for Harvard University argued in federal court Monday the Trump administration illegally cut US$2.6 billion from the storied college -- a pivotal moment in its battle against the federal government. If U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs decides in the university's favour, the ruling would reverse a series of funding freezes that later became outright cuts as the Trump administration escalated its fight with the nation's oldest and wealthiest university. Such a ruling, if it stands, would revive Harvard's sprawling scientific and medical research operation and hundreds of projects that lost federal money. A lawyer for Harvard, Steven Lehotsky, opened the hearing by saying the Trump administration violated the university's First Amendment rights. He said the government conditioned research grants on Harvard 'ceding control' to the government over what is appropriate for students and faculty to say. A second lawsuit over the cuts filed by the American Association of University Professors and its Harvard faculty chapter has been consolidated with the university's. Harvard's lawsuit accuses President Donald Trump's administration of waging a retaliation campaign against the university after it rejected a series of demands in an April 11 letter from a federal antisemitism task force. The letter demanded sweeping changes related to campus protests, academics and admissions. For example, the letter told Harvard to audit the viewpoints of students and faculty and admit more students or hire new professors if the campus was found to lack diverse points of view. The letter was meant to address government accusations that the university had become a hotbed of liberalism and tolerated anti-Jewish harassment on campus. Harvard President Alan Garber pledged to fight antisemitism but said no government 'should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.' The same day Harvard rejected the demands, Trump officials moved to freeze $2.2 billion in research grants. Education Secretary Linda McMahon declared in May that Harvard would no longer be eligible for new grants, and weeks later the administration began canceling contracts with Harvard. As Harvard fought the funding freeze in court, individual agencies began sending letters announcing that the frozen research grants were being terminated. They cited a clause that allows grants to be scrapped if they no longer align with government policies. Harvard, which has the nation's largest endowment at $53 billion, has moved to self-fund some of its research, but warned it can't absorb the full cost of the federal cuts. In court filings, the school said the government 'fails to explain how the termination of funding for research to treat cancer, support veterans, and improve national security addresses antisemitism.' The Trump administration denies the cuts were made in retaliation, saying the grants were under review even before the April demand letter was sent. It argues the government has wide discretion to cancel contracts for policy reasons. 'It is the policy of the United States under the Trump Administration not to fund institutions that fail to adequately address antisemitism in their programs,' it said in court documents. The research funding is only one front in Harvard's fight with the federal government. The Trump administration also has sought to prevent the school from hosting foreign students, and Trump has threatened to revoke Harvard's tax-exempt status. Finally, last month, the Trump administration formally issued a finding that the school tolerated antisemitism -- a step that eventually could jeopardize all of Harvard's federal funding, including federal student loans or grants. The penalty is typically referred to as a 'death sentence.' By Michael Casey
CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
U.S. Treasury's Bessent says Federal Reserve needs to be examined as an institution
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaks, Wednesday, April 23, 2025, to the Institute of International Finance Global Outlook Forum in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday said the entire U.S. Federal Reserve needed to be examined as an institution and whether it had been successful. Bessent, speaking with CNBC, declined to comment on a report that he had advised U.S. President Donald Trump not to fire Fed chair Jerome Powell, saying it would be the president's decision. But he said the institution should be reviewed, citing what he called 'fear-mongering over tariffs' despite the emergence thus far of little, if any, inflationary effect. 'I think that what we need to do is examine the entire Federal Reserve institution and whether they have been successful,' Bessent said, adding that he would give a keynote speech at the U.S. central bank on Monday evening at the start of a regulatory conference. 'If this were the (Federal Aviation Administration) and we were having this many mistakes, we would go back and look at why. Why has this happened?' he said. 'All these PhDs over there, I don't know what they do.' Trump has railed repeatedly against Powell and urged him to resign because of the central bank's reluctance to deliver interest-rate cuts. In recent days the president has also taken aim at a $2.5 billion renovation at the Fed's Washington headquarters that has exceeded its budget, suggesting there could be fraud involved and it might be a reason to oust Powell. Powell last week responded to a Trump administration official's demands for information about cost overruns on the project, saying it was large in scope and involved a number of safety upgrades and hazardous materials removals. Bessent declined to be drawn on predictions that U.S. financial markets could crash if Powell was ousted. Powell's term as chair ends in May 2026, although he is due to stay on as a Fed governor through January 2028. Bessent noted that Powell's term ends in May, adding that another governor seat would come open in January. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Susan Heavey. Editing by Bernadette Baum and Chizu Nomiyama)
CTV News
an hour ago
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Ellen DeGeneres says Donald Trump is the reason she left the U.S.
Ellen DeGeneres speaks at Toronto's Scotiabank Arena for a moderated Q&A on March 3, 2019. The comedian and her wife, actress Portia de Rossi, moved to the United Kingdom ahead of the US election in November. (SOPA/Getty Images via CNN Newsource) Ellen DeGeneres has confirmed that she decided to leave the United States because of the re-election of U.S. President Donald Trump, as well as addressing the allegations of a toxic work culture at her former show, according to British media reports. The comedian and her wife, actress Portia de Rossi, moved to the United Kingdom ahead of the US election in November. They bought what they initially thought would be a 'part-time house,' DeGeneres told a crowd at the Everyman Theatre in the southern English town of Cheltenham on Sunday, according to reports by the BBC and the Guardian. However, 'We got here the day before the election and woke up to lots of texts from our friends with crying emojis, and I was like, 'He got in',' she said. 'And we're like, 'We're staying here.'' CNN has reached out to the White House and DeGeneres' representatives for comment. DeGeneres' remarks come a week after she showed support on social media for talk show host Rosie O'Donnell, whose US citizenship Trump has threatened to revoke. 'Everything here is just better' DeGeneres went on to enthuse about the English countryside to the crowd in Cheltenham, saying, 'It's absolutely beautiful,' the BBC reported. 'We're just not used to seeing this kind of beauty. The villages and the towns and the architecture – everything you see is charming and it's just a simpler way of life.' 'It's clean. Everything here is just better – the way animals are treated, people are polite. I just love it here,' added the 67-year-old, who in May shared a humorous video on Instagram of herself riding a lawnmower on her British estate. 'We moved here in November, which was not the ideal time, but I saw snow for the first time in my life. We love it here. Portia flew her horses here, and I have chickens, and we had sheep for about two weeks,' she continued. The comedian and LGBTQ activist also announced that she and De Rossi would get married again in the UK if the US reversed its legalization of gay marriage, adding that being gay in Hollywood is 'still a problem. People are still scared.' Referring to the US Southern Baptists' overwhelming endorsement of a ban on gay marriage in June, DeGeneres said: 'The Baptist Church in America is trying to reverse gay marriage. They're trying to literally stop it from happening in the future and possibly reverse it. Portia and I are already looking into it, and if they do that, we're going to get married here.' Reputation as 'mean' is 'hurtful' The former daytime talk show host, who wrapped up 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show' in 2022 after facing allegations of a toxic work culture two years prior, also opened up about her show ending in an 'unpleasant way.' DeGeneres, who last year announced that she was 'done' after her Netflix special and had 'got kicked out of show business for being mean,' said, 'No matter what, any article that came up, it was like, 'She's mean', and it's like, how do I deal with this without sounding like a victim or 'poor me' or complaining? But I wanted to address it.' 'It's as simple as, I'm a direct person, and I'm very blunt, and I guess sometimes that means that… I'm mean?' she continued. The comedian added that it is 'hurtful' to her that she does not think she can say anything to get rid of that reputation. 'I hate it. I hate that people think that I'm that because I know who I am and I know that I'm an empathetic, compassionate person,' the BBC reported her as saying.
