Latest news with #MiddleEast-focused
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Linda McMahon says Harvard and Columbia making ‘progress' to meet Trump's demands to stop antisemitism
Trump's Education Secretary, Linda McMahon, praised the administration for pushing Harvard and Columbia University to make 'progress' on tackling campus antisemitism. "I have seen progress. And you know why I think we're seeing progress? Because we are putting these measures in place, and we're saying we're putting teeth behind what we're looking at," McMahon told NBC News. 'They talk a lot about it, but I think we really started to see a lot of their actions once we were taking action," McMahon added. The comments come as the administration continues its unprecedented campaign to force changes at both universities, on allegations that they didn't do enough to combat campus antisemitism during contentious protests surrounding the Israel-Hamas war. In April, the administration froze more than $2.2 billion in federal funding to Harvard after it refused to comply with a series of sweeping on-campus changes the administration demanded, prompting the university to sue. The Trump administration also imperiled $400 million to Columbia in March, though the New York university has taken a different tack than its Massachusetts peer in the Ivy League, largely agreeing to administration demands to restore the funds. Both schools were making concerted efforts to address antisemitism on campus before Trump took office. Columbia created an antisemitism task force in 2023, while Harvard followed suit in 2024, and the schools have worked to reform student training practices, disciplinary policies, and protest rules prior to Trump's crackdown on the universities beginning. Harvard also settled a major antisemitism suit from students and adopted a new campus definition of antisemitism in January, right as Trump took office. However, once the administration was underway, the universities have taken sharply divergent approaches, though neither has spared the Ivy League universities from scrutiny from the administration. In April, the administration demanded that Harvard institute unprecedented changes, including ending all diversity policies, cooperating with federal law enforcement, and subjecting itself to a 'viewpoint diversity' audit, among other reforms. The university declined, and soon after the administration froze the $2.2 billion in grants and contracts, prompting Harvard to sue. Since then, the administration has continued to ratchet up pressure on Harvard, attempting to strip its ability to enroll international students and threatening to revoke Harvard's tax-exempt status. In March, Columbia largely acceded to the administration's requests, instituting changes like empowering a new campus police force to arrest students, committing to hiring faculty with greater 'intellectual diversity,' partially banning face masks at protests, and restructuring Middle East-focused university departments. Nonetheless, on Wednesday, the Department of Education claimed that Columbia was 'in violation of federal antidiscrimination laws and therefore fails to meet the standards for accreditation.' Harvard President Alan Garber has accused the administration of trying to unconstitutionally interfere with the university's affairs and choosing punishments that have little to do with tackling antisemitism. 'The sanctions that the government chose to impose against us — having to do with cutting off federal support at Harvard — those are not sanctions that will particularly aid us in the fight against antisemitism,' Garber told alumni in April. The administration has at times struggled to explain its own education policies. During a hearing in the House on Wednesday, McMahon appeared unable to answer questions about whether teaching students about the Tulsa race massacre or the fact that Joe Biden won the 2020 election would amount to 'illegal DEI,' a practice the administration says should bar schools from receiving federal funds. When asked about whether the administration's push to force universities to hire more ideologically diverse staff meant Harvard had to hire people like Holocaust deniers, McMahon responded and said, 'I believe that there should be diversity of viewpoints relative to teachings and opinions on campuses.' Officials have also spoken openly about their desire to police student opinion and political activity. 'It's very important that we are making sure that the students who are coming in and being on these campuses aren't activists, that they're not causing these activities,' McMahon added in her NBC News interview. This spring, the administration briefly revoked, then reinstated, legal status for thousands of internationals on student visas in the U.S.
Business Times
20-05-2025
- Business
- Business Times
Brookfield, Lunate earmark US$1 billion for Mideast real estate
[DUBAI] Brookfield Asset Management is partnering with the Abu Dhabi-based asset manager Lunate on a US$1 billion joint venture to invest in residential real estate in the Middle East, which is home to some of the world's hottest property markets. The new venture will focus on investing in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates' finance hubs where property values have surged in recent years. Lunate will commit a significant cornerstone investment, according to a statement on Tuesday (May 20). The deal is the latest example of the allure of markets like Dubai, where property prices have surged 70 per cent in the last four years. The city is starting to entice a slew of new Wall Street investors, with Brookfield among firms looking to expand, Bloomberg News has reported. 'Our joint venture with Lunate is significant as we expand into the high-quality residential real estate sector, driven by a rising population seeking premium properties,' Brookfield's Managing Partner and Regional Head for the Middle East Jad Ellawn said. The latest deal deepens ties between the two firms, and comes a year after the US$110 billion Lunate bought a stake in the largest office tower in Dubai's financial hub from Brookfield. Brookfield has become one of the biggest foreign investors in the Middle East by building a private equity portfolio of US$8 billion and amassing infrastructure and real estate assets worth US$5 billion. It intends to raise at least US$2 billion for a Middle East-focused fund – the biggest of its kind – while weighing a string of new investments. BLOOMBERG
Business Recorder
15-05-2025
- Business
- Business Recorder
Stanchart builds US-based private equity team amid investment bank push
LONDON: Standard Chartered has created a dedicated team covering private equity firms, hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds, as part of a wider drive in its investment bank to win more business from financial clients, the bank said on Thursday. The bank will appoint a global head of financial sponsors in due course, it said, reporting to Molly Duffy and Jerry Zhang, its global co-heads of financial institution coverage, with Duffy leading the financial sponsors team until then. The team will initially be comprised of around 25 bankers, with some external hires to come, and will be based in New York with hubs in London and Dubai, StanChart said. The move signals the importance the Asia, Africa and Middle East-focused StanChart places on growing its income from other financial firms, which the bank said currently account for 51% of its total investment banking income and which generate higher returns on average. It also serves as a contrast to rival HSBC which earlier this year slashed its U.S. and European M&A and equity capital markets businesses, part of its biggest investment banking retrenchment in a decade as it focuses even more on Asia. Tech Accelerator: Standard Chartered Pakistan launches '7th Cohort of Futuremakers Women' While Wall Street banks have dominated global investment banking league tables in recent years, Wall Street bosses now fear an anti-American backlash amid President Donald Trump's trade war that could hurt their business. StanChart's push into the world of U.S. financial clients is the latest in an overhaul of its investment banking coverage model, which included the creation of a new banking team to cover big cross border deals, reported by Reuters last September. The bank is stepping up efforts to serve private equity clients in particular as well as targeting banks, insurers and asset managers, Sunil Kaushal, co-head of corporate and investment banking at StanChart, said. The announcement on Thursday coincides with a presentation on investment bank strategy to investors, the latest in a series of such presentations aimed at explaining its overall business strategy in greater detail.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Stanchart builds US-based private equity team amid investment bank push
By Lawrence White LONDON (Reuters) -Standard Chartered has created a dedicated team covering private equity firms, hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds, as part of a wider drive in its investment bank to win more business from financial clients, the bank said on Thursday. The bank will appoint a global head of financial sponsors in due course, it said, reporting to Molly Duffy and Jerry Zhang, its global co-heads of financial institution coverage, with Duffy leading the financial sponsors team until then. The team will initially be comprised of around 25 bankers, with some external hires to come, and will be based in New York with hubs in London and Dubai, StanChart said. The move signals the importance the Asia, Africa and Middle East-focused StanChart places on growing its income from other financial firms, which the bank said currently account for 51% of its total investment banking income and which generate higher returns on average. It also serves as a contrast to rival HSBC which earlier this year slashed its U.S. and European M&A and equity capital markets businesses, part of its biggest investment banking retrenchment in a decade as it focuses even more on Asia. While Wall Street banks have dominated global investment banking league tables in recent years, Wall Street bosses now fear an anti-American backlash amid President Donald Trump's trade war that could hurt their business. StanChart's push into the world of U.S. financial clients is the latest in an overhaul of its investment banking coverage model, which included the creation of a new banking team to cover big cross border deals, reported by Reuters last September. The bank is stepping up efforts to serve private equity clients in particular as well as targeting banks, insurers and asset managers, Sunil Kaushal, co-head of corporate and investment banking at StanChart, said. The announcement on Thursday coincides with a presentation on investment bank strategy to investors, the latest in a series of such presentations aimed at explaining its overall business strategy in greater detail. (Reporting By Lawrence White, editing by Sinead Cruise) Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Stanchart builds US-based private equity team amid investment bank push
By Lawrence White LONDON (Reuters) -Standard Chartered has created a dedicated team covering private equity firms, hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds, as part of a wider drive in its investment bank to win more business from financial clients, the bank said on Thursday. The bank will appoint a global head of financial sponsors in due course, it said, reporting to Molly Duffy and Jerry Zhang, its global co-heads of financial institution coverage, with Duffy leading the financial sponsors team until then. The team will initially be comprised of around 25 bankers, with some external hires to come, and will be based in New York with hubs in London and Dubai, StanChart said. The move signals the importance the Asia, Africa and Middle East-focused StanChart places on growing its income from other financial firms, which the bank said currently account for 51% of its total investment banking income and which generate higher returns on average. It also serves as a contrast to rival HSBC which earlier this year slashed its U.S. and European M&A and equity capital markets businesses, part of its biggest investment banking retrenchment in a decade as it focuses even more on Asia. While Wall Street banks have dominated global investment banking league tables in recent years, Wall Street bosses now fear an anti-American backlash amid President Donald Trump's trade war that could hurt their business. StanChart's push into the world of U.S. financial clients is the latest in an overhaul of its investment banking coverage model, which included the creation of a new banking team to cover big cross border deals, reported by Reuters last September. The bank is stepping up efforts to serve private equity clients in particular as well as targeting banks, insurers and asset managers, Sunil Kaushal, co-head of corporate and investment banking at StanChart, said. The announcement on Thursday coincides with a presentation on investment bank strategy to investors, the latest in a series of such presentations aimed at explaining its overall business strategy in greater detail. (Reporting By Lawrence White, editing by Sinead Cruise) Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
