Judge orders Trump to restore partial UCLA funding suspended over pro-Palestinian protests
US District Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco ruled that the grant funding suspensions violated an earlier June preliminary injunction where she ordered the National Science Foundation to restore dozens of grants that it had terminated at the University of California.
That order had blocked the agency from cancelling other grants at the University of California system, of which UCLA is a part.
'NSF's actions violate the Preliminary Injunction,' Lin, an appointee of Democratic former President Joe Biden, wrote. The White House and the university had no immediate comment on the ruling.
UCLA said last week the government froze $584 million in funding. Trump has threatened to cut federal funds for universities over pro-Palestinian student protests against US ally Israel's military assault on Gaza.
It was not immediately clear how much of the frozen funding was the judge ordering to be restored.
The University of California said last week it was reviewing a settlement offer by the Trump administration for UCLA in which the university will pay $1 billion. It said such a large payment would 'devastate' the institution.
The government alleges universities, including UCLA, allowed antisemitism during the protests.
Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the government wrongly equates their criticism of Israel's war in Gaza and its occupation of Palestinian territories with antisemitism, and their advocacy for Palestinian rights with support for extremism.
Experts have raised free speech and academic freedom concerns over the Republican president's threats. Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom called the Trump administration's settlement offer a form of extortion.
Large demonstrations took place at UCLA last year. Last month, UCLA agreed to pay over $6 million to settle a lawsuit alleging antisemitism. It was also sued this year over a 2024 violent mob attack on pro-Palestinian protesters.
Rights advocates note a rise in antisemitism, anti-Arab bias and Islamophobia due to conflict in the Middle East. The Trump administration has not announced equivalent probes into Islamophobia.
The government has settled its probes with Columbia University, which agreed to pay over $220 million, and Brown University, which said it will pay $50 million. Both accepted certain government demands. Settlement talks with Harvard University are ongoing.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Arabiya
19 minutes ago
- Al Arabiya
Trump and Putin: A strained relationship
Donald Trump styles himself as a strongman. And that's exactly what he sees in Vladimir Putin. Their complicated relationship will be put to the test at a summit in Alaska on Friday, where the two leaders who claim to admire each other will seek to outmaneuver one another over how to end Russia's invasion of Ukraine. While the two were close to a bromance during Trump's first term (2017-2021), their relationship has grown strained during his second term. The US president has expressed anger with Putin for pressing on with his brutal three-year-old war in Ukraine, which Trump calls 'ridiculous.' Trump describes the summit as 'really a feel-out meeting' to evaluate Putin's readiness to negotiate an end to the war. 'I'm going to be telling him, 'You've got to end this war,'' Trump said. The two leaders notably have radically different negotiating strategies: the Republican real estate magnate usually banks on making a deal, while the Russian president tends to take the long view, confident that time is on his side. 'Face to face' Referring to Trump's meeting with Putin, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that Trump needs 'to see him face to face... to make an assessment by looking at him.' Trump praised Putin for accepting his invitation to come to the US state of Alaska, which was once a Russian colony. 'I thought it was very respectful that the president of Russia is coming to our country, as opposed to us going to his country or even a third place," Trump said Monday. It will be only the second one-on-one meeting between the men since a 2018 Helsinki summit. Trump calls Putin smart and insists he's always 'had a very good relationship' with the Kremlin leader. But when Russian missiles pounded Kyiv earlier this year, Trump accused him of 'needlessly killing a lot of people,' adding in a social media post: "He has gone absolutely CRAZY!' For his part, Putin has praised the Republican billionaire's push to end the Ukraine war. 'I have no doubt that he means it sincerely,' Putin said last year when Trump was running for president. Since returning to the White House in January, the American president has forged a rapprochement with Putin, who has been sidelined by the international community since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Trump and Putin, aged 79 and 72 respectively, spoke for 90 minutes by phone in February, both expressing hope for a reset of relations. But after a series of fruitless talks and continued deadly Russian bombing of Ukrainian cities, Trump has appeared increasingly frustrated. 'I am very disappointed with President Putin,' Trump told reporters last month. 'I thought he was somebody that meant what he said. And he'll talk so beautifully and then he'll bomb people at night. We don't like that.' The memory of Helsinki Trump and Putin have met six times, mostly on the sidelines of international events during Trump's first term. In his recent book 'War,' Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward wrote that Trump spoke to Putin seven times between leaving the White House in 2021 and returning there earlier this year. The Kremlin denies this. But the defining moment in their relationship remains the July 16, 2018 summit in the Finnish capital Helsinki. After a two-hour one-on-one meeting, Trump and Putin expressed a desire to mend relations between Washington and Moscow. But Trump caused an uproar during a joint press conference by appearing to take at face value the Russian president's assurances that Moscow did not attempt to influence the 2016 US presidential election -- even though US intelligence agencies had unanimously confirmed that it did. 'I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today,' Trump said. "He just said it's not Russia. I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be." Given this history, Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen is worried about what could happen at the Trump-Putin summit. 'I am very concerned that President Putin will view this as a reward and another opportunity to further prolong the war instead of finally seeking peace,' she said.
Al Arabiya
an hour ago
- Al Arabiya
India reels from US tariff hike threat
Indian exporters are scrambling for options to mitigate the fallout of US President Donald Trump's threatened tariff salvo against the world's most populous nation. Many warn of dire job losses after Trump said he would double new import tariffs from 25 percent to 50 percent if India continues to buy Russian oil, in a bid to strip Moscow of revenue for its military offensive in Ukraine. 'At 50 percent tariff, no product from India can stand any competitive edge,' said economist Garima Kapoor from Elara Securities. India, one of the world's largest crude oil importers, has until August 27 to find alternatives to replace around a third of its current oil supply from abroad. While New Delhi is not an export powerhouse, it shipped goods worth about $87 billion to the United States in 2024. That 50 percent levy now threatens to upend low-margin, labor-intensive industries ranging from gems and jewelry to textiles and seafood. The Global Trade Research Initiative estimates a potential 60 percent drop in US sales in 2025 in sectors such as garments. Exporters say they are racing to fulfil orders before the deadline. 'Whatever we can ship before August 27, we are shipping,' said Vijay Kumar Agarwal, chairman of Creative Group. The Mumbai-based textile and garment exporter has a nearly 80 percent exposure to the US market. But Agarwal warned that is merely triage. Shipping goods before the deadline 'doesn't solve' the problem, he said. 'If it doesn't get resolved, there will be chaos,' he said, adding that he's worried for the future of his 15,000 to 16,000 employees. 'It is a very gloomy situation... it will be an immense loss of business.' Shifting production abroad Talks to resolve the matter hinge on geopolitics, far from the reach of business. Trump is set to meet Vladimir Putin on Friday, the first face-to-face meeting between the two countries' presidents since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. New Delhi, with longstanding ties with Moscow, is in a delicate situation. Since Trump's tariff threats, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken to both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, urging a 'peaceful resolution' to the conflict. Meanwhile, the US tariff impact is already being felt in India. Businesses say fresh orders from some US buyers have begun drying up -- threatening millions of dollars in future business and the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands in the world's fifth biggest economy. Among India's biggest apparel makers with global manufacturing operations, some are looking to move their US orders elsewhere. Top exporter Pearl Global Industries has told Indian media that some of its US customers asked that orders be produced in lower-duty countries such as Vietnam or Bangladesh, where the company also has manufacturing facilities. Major apparel maker Gokaldas Exports told Bloomberg it may boost production in Ethiopia and Kenya, which have a 10 percent tariff. 'Standstill' Moody's recently warned that for India, the 'much wider tariff gap' may 'even reverse some of the gains made in recent years in attracting related investments.' India's gems and jewelry industry exported goods worth more than $10 billion last year and employs hundreds of thousands of people. 'Nothing is happening now, everything is at a standstill, new orders have been put on hold,' Ajesh Mehta from D. Navinchandra Exports told AFP. 'We expect up to 150,000 to 200,000 workers to be impacted.' Gems, and other expensive non-essential items, are vulnerable. 'A 10 percent tariff was absorbable -- 25 percent is not, let alone this 50 percent,' Mehta added. 'At the end of the day, we deal in luxury products. When the cost goes up beyond a point, customers will cut back.' Seafood exporters, who have been told by some US buyers to hold shipments, are hoping for new customers. 'We are looking to diversify our markets,' says Alex Ninan, who is a partner at the Baby Marine Group. 'The United States is totally out right now. We will have to push our products to alternative markets, such as China, Japan... Russia is another market we are really looking into.' Ninan, however, warns that is far from simple. 'You can't create a market all of a sudden,' he said.
Arab News
an hour ago
- Arab News
Zelensky, European leaders to speak to Trump ahead of Putin summit
BRUSSELS/LONDON/KYIV: Europe and Ukraine's leaders will speak to US President Donald Trump at a virtual meeting on Wednesday ahead of his summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin, as they try to drive home the perils of selling out Kyiv's interests in pursuit of a ceasefire. Trump hosts Putin, a pariah in the West since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, at talks in Alaska on Friday that the US president has said will serve as a 'feel-out' meeting in his efforts to end the Russo-Ukraine war. Trump agreed last week to the first US-Russia summit since 2021, abruptly shifting course after weeks of voicing frustration with Putin for resisting the US peace imitative. Trump said his envoy had made 'great progress' at talks in Moscow. The US president says both Kyiv and Moscow will have to cede land to end the war. Russian troops have already occupied almost a fifth of Ukraine. The unpredictability of how the summit will play out has fueled European fears that the US and Russian leaders could take far-reaching decisions and even seek to coerce Ukraine into an unfavorable deal. 'We are focusing now to ensure that it does not happen — engaging with US partners and staying coordinated and united on the European side. Still a lot of time until Friday,' said one senior official from eastern Europe. Trump's administration tempered expectations on Tuesday for major progress toward a ceasefire, calling his meeting with Putin in Alaska a 'listening exercise.' The video conference among Trump, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and the leaders of Germany, Finland, France, Britain, Italy, Poland and the European Union is expected to take place at 1200 GMT (1400 CET), a German government spokesperson said. NATO's secretary general will also attend the conference hosted by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Ukraine hopes the meeting will serve — at least partially — as a European counterweight to the summit in Alaska. European leaders, who are wary of provoking Trump's ire, have repeatedly emphasized that they welcome his peace efforts, while underlining that there should be no deal about Ukraine without Ukraine's participation. Half a dozen senior European officials told Reuters that they see a risk of a deal being struck that is unfavorable for Europe and Ukraine's security. They said European unity would be vital if that happened. A source familiar with internal US deliberations said it could not be ruled out that Trump would seek a deal directly with Putin without involving Ukraine or Europe. But the source voiced doubt about that, saying it could cause problems with Kyiv and the EU. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday the summit will be a 'listening exercise' for Trump to hear what it will take to get to a deal. After the call, Trump and Vice President JD Vance were expected to speak to European leaders at a separate online meeting at 1300 GMT (1500 CET), the German spokesperson said. That will be followed at 1430 GMT by an online meeting of the 'coalition of the willing,' a group of countries working on plans to support Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire. MOUNTING BATTLEFIELD PRESSURE A Gallup poll released last week found that 69 percent of Ukrainians favor a negotiated end to the war as soon as possible. But polls also show Ukrainians do not want peace at any cost if that means crushing concessions. Ahead of the calls, Zelensky said it would be impossible for Kyiv to agree to a deal that would require it to withdraw its troops from the eastern Donbas region, a large swathe of which is already occupied by Russia. That, he told reporters on Tuesday, would deprive Ukraine of a vast defensive network in the region, easing the way for Russia to mount a new push deeper into Ukraine in the future. Territorial issues, he added, could only be discussed once a ceasefire has been put in place and Ukraine has received security guarantees. Moscow's troops have recently ramped up pressure on the battlefield, tightening their stranglehold on the cities of Pokrovsk and Kostyantynivka in eastern Ukraine.
