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Indian Express
3 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Harvard given 30 days to respond as Trump administration threatens foreign student ban
The Trump administration signalled on Thursday that it may walk back on its plan to immediately revoke Harvard University's ability to enrol foreign students, following backlash and logistical concerns over the move. As per a report by Reuters, in a court filing, the Department of Homeland Security issued a formal notice of intent to Harvard on Wednesday, warning that it plans to withdraw the university's certification under the federal Student and Exchange Visitor Program. The Ivy League institution now has 30 days to respond. The notice arrived just ahead of a federal court hearing that will decide whether a temporary block on the Trump administration's earlier revocation order should be extended. Since returning to office in January, President Donald Trump has escalated his campaign against elite universities, placing institutions like Harvard under heightened scrutiny for alleged political bias. But the administration's tougher stance began to take shape well before his latest term. The turning point came in the aftermath of Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which ignited the Gaza war and fuelled widespread campus protests across the United States. At a congressional hearing two months after the October 7 attacks, then-Harvard President Claudine Gay was asked whether 'calling for the genocide of Jews' would violate the university's rules on bullying and harassment. 'It can be, depending on the context,' Gay responded — a statement that stunned students, donors, and lawmakers alike, and exposed deep divisions within Harvard and its alumni network. Gay later issued a public apology, but the fallout, compounded by a separate plagiarism scandal, led to her resignation. Many Jewish advocacy groups said her departure pointed to a broader failure by Harvard to adequately confront antisemitism on campus. Despite the leadership change, the Trump administration has kept up the pressure and launched an aggressive campaign against Harvard, citing alleged antisemitism and discrimination on campus. This began with an executive order targeting institutions that fail to protect Jewish students, followed by investigations, threats to revoke visas of foreign students, and multiple funding freezes. Harvard has been placed under scrutiny by several federal agencies, with demands to dismantle DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) programmes, stop race-based admissions, and increase 'viewpoint diversity.' Despite Harvard President Alan Garber's firm defence of academic freedom and constitutional protections, the administration escalated pressure, cutting off new research grants, threatening tax-exempt status, and ultimately revoking the university's ability to enrol international students. The Department of Energy and other agencies also terminated hundreds of millions in funding. Harvard has responded with lawsuits, claiming First Amendment violations and federal overreach.
Int'l Business Times
4 days ago
- Automotive
- Int'l Business Times
Businesses With 'DEI' in Their Names Suffer Backlash After Conservatives Make False Connections to Diversity Initiatives
Owners of businesses with the letters "DEI" in their names have voiced their frustrations at becoming swept up in the Trump administration's attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion despite having nothing to do with policies associated with "wokeness". Ohio resident David Markley, who owns a firm that manufactures car parts called Design Engineering Inc. (DEI), voiced his frustrations about becoming embroiled in an agenda unrelated to him to the Wall Street Journal. "You're reading these headlines: 'DEI is wrong,' 'Terrified of the aftermath of DEI,'" said Markley. "It's disheartening when somebody's, like, bashing your baby." Since assuming office, President Donald Trump has pursued multiple courses of action and signed various executive orders with the goal of eliminating DEI related federal and private programs. However, these efforts often have unintended consequences, such as the impact on Markley's business. Earlier this year, the Pentagon removed images of Enola Gay, an aircraft piloted by Paul Tibbets that dropped an atomic bomb on Japan, from its website due to the inclusion of the word "Gay". The aircraft was named after its pilots mother, Enola Gay Tibbets. Markley shared how his business had already been embroiled in problems relating to its name due to the existence of former race team Dale Earnhhardt Inc., with which it shared initials. Design Engineering Inc. was often confused with the team, and frequently recieved phone calls intended for the team instead. "We finally got over that hump," said Markley. "Then the new DEI came. It's just like, oh, God, not again." Restaurant supply company owner Ricardo Gomez faced similar issues due to his company's name, DEI equipment. Gomez got the idea from the latin word "dei", meaning divine. "I'm a minority that owns a business—it's not that I'm against it," said Gomez. "We're very, very careful about doing anything that will offend anybody from either side." Originally published on Latin Times
Time of India
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
NYT Connections hints and answers for May 24, 2025: Saturday puzzle #713 decoded
What is NYT Connections? Hints for NYT Connections Game #713 Live Events Yellow Category – Items typically associated with infants – Items typically associated with infants Green Category – Types of legwear, each missing its final 's' – Types of legwear, each missing its final 's' Blue Category – Members of professional sports franchises in New York – Members of professional sports franchises in New York Purple Category – Influential Black women writers Connections Categories and Answers: May 24, 2025 BABY GEAR: Bib, Bottle, Monitor, Stroller Bib, Bottle, Monitor, Stroller KINDS OF PANTS MINUS "S": Capri, Jean, Jogger, Slack Capri, Jean, Jogger, Slack NEW YORK SPORTS TEAM MEMBERS: Jet, Met, Net, Ranger Jet, Met, Net, Ranger BLACK WOMEN AUTHORS: Butler, Gay, Hooks, Walker Connections: Strategy and Tips Think Broadly: Words may be connected by form, function, phonetics, or cultural reference. Start Simple: Identify obvious associations first—yellow and green groups tend to be less abstract. Use Process of Elimination: Once two categories are confidently grouped, the remaining options often reveal themselves. Limit Guesses: With only four mistakes allowed, players are advised to avoid speculative clicks. FAQs Who creates NYT Connections? Can you play the previous Connections game? (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel The New York Times' daily brain teaser, NYT Connections, continues to engage puzzle enthusiasts around the world, with today's edition—game #713—offering a particularly intriguing mix of categories. Launched following the success of Wordle, Connections has cemented its place as a go-to for word lovers who enjoy testing their vocabulary and deductive reasoning in a game of associations. For Saturday, May 24, 2025, the game delivered four distinct thematic groupings that required players to group 16 seemingly random words into sets of four based on underlying those struggling with today's categories and combinations, hints and solutions have now been is a word association puzzle that displays a 4x4 grid of 16 words. Players are tasked with organizing these words into four categories of related terms. These categories vary in difficulty, progressing from yellow (easiest) to purple (most challenging). Unlike typical crossword puzzles, Connections focuses less on definitions and more on abstract or lateral are allowed only four incorrect guesses before the puzzle locks for the day, adding an extra layer of challenge and making the solution process as strategic as it is assist players without spoiling the answers outright, subtle clues are provided daily. The hints for May 24 helped to nudge solvers in the right direction, as per a report by Beebom:These clues allowed players to approach the puzzle methodically, identifying patterns within specific semantic official categories and their corresponding word groupings for today's puzzle are as follows:These groupings required not only familiarity with vocabulary but also cultural and contextual knowledge. The third category, for instance, referenced team names across various sports leagues based in New new players exploring NYT Connections, a few pointers can make the game more approachable:Connections is a category-matching puzzle game created by The New York Times as part of its Games section. Launched in beta on June 12, 2023, it has since become the Times' second most-played game, following the popularity of if you have an NYT account, you can play the past games in the archive.
Indian Express
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
By going after Harvard, Trump undermines one of America's greatest assets — higher education
On May 23, a federal judge issued an injunction against the Trump administration's order to prevent Harvard University from admitting international students. This order, which the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, had conveyed in a letter to Harvard's International Office, was the latest missive that the university had received from the administration. In the letter, the Secretary accused the university of '… perpetuating an unsafe campus environment that is hostile to Jewish students, promotes pro-Hamas sympathies, and employs racist 'diversity, equity, and inclusion' policies.' Earlier, in April of this year, the Trump administration had frozen as much as $2.2 billion in federal research funds awarded to Harvard in competitive processes. Much of this funding had been allocated to the university's T H Chan School of Public Health and the Harvard Medical School. Both organisations are now reeling from the effects of these abrupt budget cuts on a wide range of research programmes, including a host of ongoing clinical trials now in serious jeopardy. Harvard's troubles began in earnest during a Congressional hearing last year in the wake of the October 7 terrorist attacks in Israel by Hamas, when the Chair of the House Republican Conference, Elise Stefanik, grilled Harvard's then-president, Claudine Gay, on charges of antisemitism on the university's campus. Stefanik and all her Republican colleagues on the Committee on Education and the Workforce, and even some Democrats, commented that Gay's responses were both anodyne and legalistic. Subsequently, owing to her failure to address the issue of anti-Semitism more forthrightly, followed by charges of plagiarism in some of her academic writings, she was forced to resign from the university presidency. Despite Gay's resignation, Harvard remained in Republican sights. Soon after Donald Trump took office for the second time, his administration issued a series of demands intended to dramatically curtail the university's institutional autonomy. These demands included governance and leadership reforms, revised hiring criteria, changes in admissions procedures for both domestic and international students, reforms in the arena of viewpoint diversity, and an external audit of university units accused of 'egregious … antisemitism or other bias'. On the face of it, many of these expectations appeared innocuous. However, had Harvard decided to acquiesce, it would have amounted to the university relinquishing its intellectual, academic, and administrative independence. More to the point, Alan Garber, the university's new president, had forthrightly agreed to address the issue of antisemitism on campus long before the administration issued this strongly worded warning. What seems to have placed Harvard directly in the administration's crosshairs is its refusal to buckle under the government's threats. Columbia University, another Ivy League institution faced with massive losses of federal grants, after initially resisting, had decided to comply with the Trump administration's similarly intrusive demands in the wake of its own handling of protests on its New York City campus. Although it is a wealthy university, Columbia's endowment is a fraction of the size of Harvard's, and its administrators decided that the threatened loss of $400 million in federal research funds was more than it could bear. The Trump administration's hostility toward universities is not confined to the Ivy League, even though its member institutions have borne the brunt of these attacks. What explains the bellicosity of the administration toward storied institutions of higher education? In considerable part, this hostility stems from a belief on the part of many within the administration that these educational institutions are bastions of political liberalism. Worse still, they also believe that, under the guise of academic freedom, most universities are hostile to conservative ideas and are in the business of indoctrinating students. Given that this is a deep-seated and widely shared belief among its personnel and its supporters, the administration has made every effort to demonise universities amongst the American electorate, significant numbers of whom did not attend college. It has also quite deftly expropriated and exploited some legitimate grievances that many American taxpayers share. For example, in the last several decades, tuition costs have skyrocketed across the entirety of American higher education (in fairness, at state universities, this is in part due to declining state subsidies to higher education). At the same time, universities, both public and private, have seen significant administrative bloat and some of their departments, especially in the humanities disciplines, have increasingly focused on issues of class, race, and gender. Addressing shortcomings and flaws is justifiable. However, the Trump administration does not seem to have a thoughtful, imaginative, or meaningful strategy for tackling these ills. Instead, it appears intent on exploiting them for political ends. Its reckless wielding of the budgetary axe threatens to undermine one of America's greatest assets — higher education. This is a sector that has contributed in great measure to America's innovative capacity and its intellectual standing. The administration's ostensible goal of addressing the shortcomings of US higher education is now placing all those achievements at risk. The writer is a Senior Fellow and directs the Huntington Program on Strengthening US-India Relations at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University
Forbes
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Change Is Possible - If You Work At It Diligently
One of the most frequent observations made about presentations and speeches is that good speakers are born not made. The underlying implication of this view is that change is impossible. Put another way, nature nullifies nurture. Unlock potential of business success stairs dart and dartboard targets magnifying glass with hand on ... More gray background. Explore opportunities growth embrace steps to achieve ambitions and goal concept. The latest instance of this belief comes from Jason Gay, the Wall Street Journal's sports columnist who was invited to deliver a commencement address at his alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Gay's immediate reaction was 'I'm not worthy.' He went on to add that some people 'are born to do this. I am not. I'm a bit of an introvert, happiest behind a keyboard. My greatest fear is a room full of strangers. My second greatest fear is another room full of strangers.' Sound familiar? Gay's plaint is a variation of the good speakers are born belief. But he didn't stop there. 'I buckled down. I prepared,' he said. The result: 'I think it went all right. Feedback's been positive.' Gay's case demonstrates that change is possible and there is overwhelming evidence to prove it: from the baseball players who go from the minor leagues to the majors, performers who go from understudy to star, or from Off-Broadway to Broadway. They are all tales about the ugly duckling who becomes a beautiful swan, and Cinderella who becomes a Princess. Of course, there is the classic 'My Fair Lady,' one the most successful Broadway musicals and films ever created. The show tells the story of how a lowly Cockney flower girl is accepted as royalty by improving her manner of speech with the help of a speech teacher. One of the songs in the show is 'Just You Wait,' which includes the passage: 'Next week on the twentieth of May, I proclaim Liza Doolittle Day!' So, in honor of Eliza Doolittle—and Jason Gay—make this the day you change. Gay said that he was able to change by reading other commencement speeches, soliciting advice from colleagues, writing multiple drafts, and practicing aloud 'maybe 30 times.' To demonstrate the power of practice, let me share a personal example. I have been a presentation coach for over three decades and I deliver my coaching sessions without any practice. However, from time to time, I am invited to give a presentation about giving a presentation. Because the material for such a presentation is drawn from my recurring programs, I don't have to go through all the steps Jason Gay did for his unique event. But I do write multiple drafts and I do practice aloud—multiple times. I broke the practice routine for one of those unique events and paid the price. I was scheduled to deliver a new presentation at a conference in Napa, a two-hour drive from my home base in Silicon Valley. It was a particularly busy time and I couldn't practice as much as usual, but planned to do so during the long drive north. However, another urgent matter arose that required my spending the drive time on the phone. The result: I stumbled frequently during the speech. Vince Lombardi, the legendary football coach once said, 'Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.' So change is possible. It just takes time and effort. Take the advice of Sir Winston Churchill, one of the greatest orators of all time, who said in one of his speeches: 'To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to have changed often.'
