Pact will help international students finish their studies amid Harvard’s legal battle with Trump administration
Harvard University and the University of Toronto and have announced a plan that would see some Harvard students complete their studies in Canada if visa restrictions prevent them from entering the United States.
The pact between the two schools reflects the tumultuous and “exceptional” politics of the postsecondary world during the second term of Donald Trump.
Continue reading...Federal jury awards historic damages to man who says he was sexually abused at a school run by Holy Cross order
In a historic verdict, a federal jury in New Orleans has ordered a Catholic religious order to pay nearly $2.4m in damages to a man who reported being sexually abused by one of its members in the late 1960s.
John Lousteau, 68, asserted that he was sexually abused while attending an overnight summer camp for boys at the Holy Cross school in New Orleans. He maintained that his abuser was the camp’s director, Stanley Repucci, who belonged to the Holy Cross order that ran the school.
Continue reading...No 10 has offered significant concessions to the rebels, estimated to cost around £3bn a year, amid fears over Tuesday’s vote
Stephen Kinnock, the care minister, was the government voice on the airwaves this morning. Here are the main points he made about the welfare bill U-turn.
Kinnock rejected claims that the U-turn was a sign of weakness. When it was put to him on the Today programme that this move, coming after the U-turns on winter fuel payments and a national inquiry into grooming gangs, showed that if Keir Starmer was pushed, he would give in, Kinnock replied:
I think if you talk to people out there in the country, they respond very positively to politicians listening, engaging, recognising that you don’t get everything right from day one every time, and making the adjustments and the changes that are needed.
And this prime minister will always put the country first. He puts country before party, and he does the right thing for the country.
He defended having a “staggered” approach to changing benefit rules. Asked about the Tory claim that the government was creating a “two-tier benefits system” (see 8.30am), he replied:
Whenever you bring forward change to a complex system, you always have to decide between do you make the change for everybody that’s in that system, in one big move, or do you do it in a more staggered way? What’s clear from the announcement today is that it’s going to be a more staggered process.
He declined to say how much the U-turn would cost. He told Times Radio:
The full details around what we are laying out, what I’ve summarised really today, is going to be laid out in parliament, and then the chancellor will set out the budget in the autumn the whole of the fiscal position and this will be an important part of that.
He said he was now confident that the UC and Pip bill will pass its second reading on Tuesday.
All of the MPs I’ve spoken to who signed the reasoned amendment – MPs from across the party, not just on the left – are sticking to their position because we understand that we are answerable to our constituents.
If the government doesn’t pull the bill, doesn’t consult properly with disabled people and come back to MPs with a serious proposal that protects the dignity of disabled people, I will vote against and I will be far from the only one.
Continue reading...Immigration speech was criticised for echoing Enoch Powell’s ‘rivers of blood’ rhetoric
Keir Starmer has said he “deeply regrets” a speech in which he described the UK as being in danger of becoming an island of strangers without tough curbs on immigration.
The prime minister made the remarks in an interview with the Observer, saying he should have read the speech more carefully and “held it up to the light a bit more”.
Continue reading...Court’s conservative justices said Texas law requiring online age verification didn’t violate free expression. PornHub had gone dark in Texas in protest of the law
The US supreme court ruled that a Texas law requiring that pornography websites verify the ages of their visitors was constitutional on Friday, the latest development in a global debate over how to prevent minors from accessing adult material online.
“HB 1181 simply requires adults to verify their age before they can access speech that is obscene to children,” Clarence Thomas wrote in the court’s 6-3 majority opinion. “The statute advances the state’s important interest in shielding children from sexually explicit content. And, it is appropriately tailored because it permits users to verify their ages through the established methods of providing government-issued identification and sharing transactional data.” Elena Kagan dissented alongside the court’s two other liberal justices.
Continue reading...Writer’s mother eases hunger strike as Starmer raises Alaa Abd el-Fattah case in phone call with Egypt’s president
The family of Alaa Abd el-Fattah have expressed cautious optimism that progress is being made to secure the British-Egyptian dissident’s release from jail in Cairo after Keir Starmer managed to secure a long-delayed phone call with the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, in which the two leaders discussed improving UK-Egypt trade relations.
The call coincided with a decision by Abd el-Fattah’s mother, Laila Soueif, to ease her hunger strike in the hope diplomacy may work. She is on a glucose drip in St Thomas’ hospital in London. The 69-year-old’s decision came after discussions with doctors and her family. She has been on hunger strike for more than 270 days to secure improvement in Abd el-Fattah’s jail conditions or his release.
Continue reading...California governor accuses network of falsely claiming he lied about a phone call with Donald Trump
The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, has sued Fox News for defamation and demanded $787m, almost exactly the same amount Fox paid in a previous defamation case over election misinformation.
In the new lawsuit, filed on Friday, Newsom accuses the Fox host Jesse Watters of falsely claiming Newsom lied about a phone call with Donald Trump, who recently ordered national guard troops into Los Angeles.
Continue reading...Judge rejects former CEO’s request to dismiss case, paving way for class action also against chair Nigel Higgins
Barclays and its former chief executive Jes Staley are facing a class action lawsuit in the US over claims they defrauded and misled investors over Staley’s relationship with the child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
A judge in a Los Angeles court denied Staley’s request to dismiss the case this week, paving the way for a fresh hearing that continues a long-running legal saga emanating from Staley’s statements to regulators and investors over the nature of his ties to the disgraced financier.
Continue reading...Work to upgrade facilities at Bunnings and Officeworks sites is expected to be completed by the end of this year
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Wesfarmers has secured a $100m loan with the government’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation to install more solar panels, batteries and EV chargers at its Bunnings and Officeworks stores.
The chief executive of the CEFC, Ian Learmonth, said he hoped the financing package at the high-profile stores would help create a “ripple effect” through the commercial sector, where the uptake of rooftop solar has been slower than across residential properties.
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Continue reading...Hosting the climate summit is a major political and logistical exercise. The prime minister is being urged to turbocharge the diplomatic effort
The Australian government’s bid to host a major global climate conference in Adelaide next year wasn’t supposed to go like this.
A two-week meeting of diplomats at the UN climate headquarters in Bonn, Germany, failed to resolve what has become a long-running issue: whether the summit known as Cop31 would be held in Australia or Turkey, the only other nation vying for the rights.
Continue reading...Nato chief Mark Rutte derided for calling US president ‘daddy’ and showering him with praise over Iran
History may record this week as the one in which Donald Trump came to Europe to discuss defence spending.
Diplomats may remember it as the week in which the art of obsequiousness reached new highs and the sycophants plunged new lows.
Continue reading...Demand for beauty products by gen Alpha customer base also behind retailer’s expansion after tough times
An increase in demand for weight loss drugs, including Mounjaro and Wegovy, as well as demand among its generation Alpha customer base for beauty products is driving expansion at Superdrug.
The retailer plans to add 25 more stores to its 800-plus strong chain this year as well as extending existing outlets, despite troubles across the high street that have led to the closure of hundreds of stores at its rival Boots and downsizing at chains from Poundland to River Island.
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