x01a Research Archives
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The federal government says it’s freezing more than $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts to Harvard University, after the institution said Monday it won’t comply with the Trump administration’s demands to limit activism on campus.
In a letter to Harvard Friday, the administration called for broad government and leadership reforms, “merit-based” admissions and hiring policies, and an audit of the study body, faculty and leadership on their views about diversity.
The demands, which are an update from an earlier letter, also call for a ban on face masks — a measure that appears to target pro-Palestinian protesters — and pressure the university to stop recognizing or funding “any student group or club that endorses or promotes criminal activity, illegal violence, or illegal harassment.”
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Eased restrictions around ChatGPT image generation can make it easy to create political deepfakes, according to a report from the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation).
The CBC discovered that not only was it easy to work around ChatGPT’s policies of depicting public figures, it even recommended ways to jailbreak its own image generation rules. Mashable was able to recreate this approach by uploading images of Elon Musk and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and then describing them as fictional characters in various situations (“at a dark smoky club” “on a beach drinking piña coladas”).
Political deepfakes are nothing new. But widespread availability of generative AI models that can create images, video, audio, and text to replicate people has real consequences. For commercially-marketed tools like ChatGPT to allow the potential spread of political disinformation raises questions about OpenAI’s responsibility in the space. That duty to safety could become compromised as AI companies compete for user adoption.
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President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Elon Musk, announced new contract terminations on Tuesday, saving American taxpayers $2.6 billion in wasteful spending.
The agency highlighted presumably the most outrageous expenses, which total over $350,000 for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) “plant maintenance” and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) social media programs.
Similarly, DOGE recently revealed that minor routine website maintenance for the VA cost $380,000 PER MONTH.
“That contract has not been renewed, and the same work is now being executed by 1 internal VA software engineer spending ~10 hours/week,” the department said.
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Mohsen Mahdawi holds a green card in the US but was raised in the West Bank until moving to the US in 2014.
Columbia University student activist Mohsen Mahdawi was summoned to a meeting with immigration officials in Vermont on Monday but was instead detained. Mahdawi holds a green card in the US but was raised in the West Bank until moving to the US in 2014.
At that meeting, ICE began the process of deporting Mahdawi to the West Bank. Mahdawi’s lawyer, per The Intercept, said that he was “unlawfully detained for no reason other than his Palestinian identity. He came to this country hoping to be free to speak out about the atrocities he has witnessed, only to be punished for such speech.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has cited a provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. Rubio made the comments in regard to the detainment and deportation of former Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, saying that Rubio could determine if Khalil could legally remain in the US.
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Hamburg police are searching for a machete-wielding migrant gang that reportedly stormed a high-rise building in the early hours of Monday, resulting in a 15-year-old boy falling to his death from the eighth floor.
As reported by Bild, the incident unfolded around 1:15 a.m. at Soltauer Ring in the Harburg district of the German port city. Armed with at least one machete, the gang of young men forced their way into an apartment on the eighth floor, according to police reports.
Inside, they launched a violent attack on those present. Moments later, the teenage victim — identified as an Iraqi national — crashed into the courtyard below from the balcony of the apartment.
Despite emergency services rushing to the scene and attempting resuscitation, the boy died shortly after their arrival.
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A leader of the anti-Israel movement at Columbia University in the aftermath of the Hamas terror attack on Israel has been detained by immigration authorities.
Mohsen Mahdawi was summoned to the Colchester, Vermont, office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Monday.
He expected to take a test to become a naturalized citizen. Instead, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him, according to the Intercept.
Mawdawi had been in the U.S. for 10 years and possesses a green card, according to the report.
“The fight for freedom of Palestine and the fight against antisemitism go hand-in-hand because injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” says Mohsen Mahdawi, co-president of Columbia’s Palestinian Students Union. https://t.co/xh91MwzdHe pic.twitter.com/CsBehwMWEc
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) December 6, 2023
www.lifesitenews.com
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The Conference of Bishops in France (CEF) has recorded the largest number of catechumens to be received or baptized into the Church since records began some twenty years ago. This year, 10,384 adults will be baptized during the Easter Vigil – a 45% increase on 2024.
Noticeable emerging patterns reveal younger generations and Muslims in France are leading the way – becoming interested in and converting to Catholicism at a quickening rate.
Official statistics corroborate with anecdotal reports to reveal the authenticity of growth in the French Church. On Ash Wednesday in 2025, an “unprecedented surge” in attendance at Mass across the country was reported in Catholic and secular media, led particularly by young adults.
“We shattered attendance records,” Fr Benoist de Sinety told Famille Chrétienne.
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A New Mexico man was charged with federal arson crimes for allegedly vandalizing a Tesla dealership and starting a fire at the state’s GOP headquarters in Albuquerque.
Jamison Wagner, 40, was charged with two counts of malicious damage or destruction of property by fire or explosives. He faces up to 20 years in prison for each count if convicted.
“Let this be the final lesson to those taking part in this ongoing wave of political violence,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “We will arrest you, we will prosecute you, and we will not negotiate. Crimes have consequences.”
Wagner allegedly vandalized the Tesla dealership in February with various phrases, including “Die Elon,” “Tesla Nazi Inc,” and “Die Tesla Nazi,” along with swastikas, according to court filings. He also allegedly started a fire affecting two Tesla vehicles, significantly damaging one of them.
Protests and attacks on Tesla vehicles and dealerships have surged in response to Elon Musk’s involvement in the Trump administration.
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President Donald Trump has clarified that electronics are not exempt from his new tariffs, warning that “NOBODY is getting ‘off the hook.’”
The warning comes as Trump redoubled his promise to end “unfair” trade policies once and for all.
The president confirmed that America’s trading partners are not “off the hook.”
The clarification came after his administration appeared to back away from targeting products like smartphones imported largely from China.
Trump’s reversal caused the stock market to rally Monday as confidence in tech stocks rebounded.
Companies like Apple are largely reliant on supply chains based in Asia, especially China.
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Good for Ohio. Other states should look at this strategy and try to replicate it.
The Enquirer reports:
Ohio private universities could lose scholarship money if they keep DEI programs
Ohio’s sweeping higher education law, Senate Bill 1, didn’t touch private universities. But a change added to the state budget would penalize private institutions that don’t ban diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Under the proposed change, students couldn’t use a popular scholarship at a private university unless that institution complies with portions of the higher education overhaul and accepts the top 10% of high school graduates.
Lawmakers are using the Governor’s Merit Scholarship, awarded to Ohio high school students in the top 5% of their class, as a carrot and a stick. Private universities aren’t required to make the changes in Senate Bill 1. But those that don’t risk losing scholarship students to other universities.
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There is a cancer in America’s military ranks, and it must be expunged before it’s too late. That cancer lies in uniformed service members’ widespread rejection of the uniquely American concept of civilian control of the military and disregard for the absolute necessity that America’s military officers remain apolitical in the face of the constitutional will of the electorate.
Recent events reveal this cancer, and they include the relief for cause of Navy Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield after she reportedly refused to hang photos of President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on her headquarters’ customary “Chain of Command” board and reportedly told her subordinates in a town hall that she would “wait [the Trump administration] out” the next four years. They also include the relief for cause of Col. Sussanah Meyers, commander of the U.S. Space Force’s base in Greenland, after she openly questioned (to all of her subordinates via email) Vice President J.D. Vance’s official pronouncements regarding the United States, Greenland, and Denmark.
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The most critical issue facing America is an illegal alien gang member being sent back to El Salvador. At least, that’s what Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) act as if the fate of democracy hangs on. I’m sure you, an American, can think of at least five things more important, up to and including it being WrestleMania week. What most likely happened is that a progressive NGO funded by progressive billionaires settled on the gang member to be what progressives have to care about this week, and CNN said, “Sure, we have no self-respect.”
It’s not surprising that CNN’s Kaitlin Collins, when allowed to speak for some reason, would ask about the Democrat talking point du jour. Kilmar Abrego Garcia is an illegal alien under a deportation order who had been staying in Maryland. He was removed and sent back to El Salvador. Democrats and CNN want him brought back to America. Collins asked Trump why he is being so mean.
Trump, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, Marco Rubio, Pam Bondi, and Stephen Miller all took turns responding. They ran out of time for JD Vance to have his turn, so he shared his thoughts on Twitter.
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In more than 200 sanctuary city, county, and state jurisdictions across the United States, illegal aliens gather where they know they will be protected by local government authorities from deportation, no matter what crime they may commit. They hide in plain sight in any neighborhood: in pockets of ethnic communities among legal, law-abiding immigrants, and in upscale areas if they are working in the lucrative trafficking industrial complex.
A 40-year-old citizen of El Salvador was arrested after he sexually abused a child in Washington, D.C. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) learned of the crime while he was in custody and launched a detainer, which tells city officials to notify ICE when he is released and transfer custody to ICE.
The detainer was ignored. The Salvadoran was released back into the D.C. community without telling ICE, and he reoffended, ICE Washington, D.C. Field Office Director Russell Hott told The Federalist.
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It is becoming increasingly apparent that the Trump administration is serious about this. The students who are causing trouble are being sought out and removed. That’s a good thing.
WTNH News reports:
13 people at UConn have had their visas revoked, university officials say
Twelve international students and one postgraduate at the University of Connecticut have had their visas terminated by the federal government, according to a university spokesperson.
According to the university’s review of Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) records, the federal government has terminated the visas of 13 UConn students as of Monday.
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A far-left online project from the Smithsonian has disappeared, just weeks after President Donald Trump signed executive orders enforcing laws against racial discrimination. The project was previously exposed for pushing racist claims about white people.
Soon after taking office in January, Trump signed executive orders Ending Illegal Discrimination And Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity and Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing. The orders banned discrimination in the name of “diversity” across the government and directed the attorney general to enforce anti-discrimination law accordingly.
Following these orders, the Smithsonian removed its main webpage on “Talking About Race” sometime between late February and early March, according to internet archives. The page now redirects to “teaching and learning” resources.
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Khalil’s lawyers have until April 23 to request ‘relief’ and halt deportation
President Donald Trump’s administration can deport Mahmoud Khalil, the man who helped lead disruptive pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University over the last year, a U.S. immigration judge ruled Friday.
“The department has met its burden to establish removability by clear and convincing evidence,” Judge Jamee Comans said, according to The New York Times.
Khalil’s case “now moves on to what is known as the ‘relief stage,’ in which his lawyers will be able to argue for his right to stay in the country. If they lose, they can appeal, first to an immigration board and then to a federal court,” the outlet reported.
The judge gave Khalil’s legal team until April 23 to file a request for relief to prevent his deportation, Axios reported.
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Over the past two weeks, broadcast networks were utterly consumed by news of the Trump administration’s tariffs, to the degree that the topic took up more than a third of their flagship morning and evening newscasts’ total run time. Yet during that same time period, these networks spared barely any time at all to cover some of the positive economic news, such as the declining Consumer Price Index and a stronger-than-expected jobs report.
MRC analysts looked at all coverage of tariffs on ABC, CBS, and NBC’s flagship morning and evening news shows, from April 2 through April 11. During that time, these networks aired a jaw-dropping seven hours and two minutes of reporting about the Trump administration’s trade war, and all three surpassing two hours each. ABC led the pack with 148 minutes, followed by NBC with 144 minutes and CBS with 130 minutes dedicated to the topic.
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Meta Platforms (META.O), opens new tab CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stand on Monday at a high-stakes trial in Washington over U.S. antitrust enforcers’ claims that the company spent billions of dollars to acquire Instagram and WhatsApp to fend off Facebook competitors.The FTC is seeking to force Meta to restructure or sell Instagram and WhatsApp, testing President Donald Trump’s promises to take on Big Tech while posing an existential threat to a company that by some estimates earns about half of its U.S. advertising revenue from Instagram.