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      Cornell Cancels Kehlani Performance Over Her Stance on the War in Gaza

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      The R&B singer’s outspoken support for Palestinians had drawn criticism on the campus and beyond. Some students expressed disappointment at the cancellation.Cornell University dropped a popular R&B singer from its annual campus concert over what the school’s president said were antisemitic and anti-Israel sentiments she had espoused.The singer, Kehlani, has been an outspoken opponent of Israel’s war in Gaza, speaking out at concerts and on social media. In a 2024 music video for the song “Next 2 U,” Kehlani danced in a jacket adorned with kaffiyehs as dancers waved Palestinian flags in the background. During the video’s introduction, the phrase “Long Live the Intifada” appeared against a dark background.Furor over the singer’s selection spread across Cornell’s campus and beyond after the school announced the lineup for the concert, an annual celebration called Slope Day that follows the last day of classes. The Ivy League university is among dozens being investigated by the White House over allegations of antisemitism, part of the Trump administration’s targeting of universities. Earlier this month, the White House froze $1 billion in funding for Cornell.Cornell’s president, Michael I. Kotlikoff, wrote in an email on Wednesday that “although it was not the intention, the selection of Kehlani as this year’s headliner has injected division and discord” into the event.“In the days since Kehlani was announced, I have heard grave concerns from our community that many are angry, hurt and confused that Slope Day would feature a performer who has espoused antisemitic, anti-Israel sentiments in performances, videos and on social media,” he wrote.The protests over the war in Gaza have exposed broad disagreement about when criticism of Israel veers into antisemitic behavior. To some, the word “intifada,” which translates into rebellion or uprising, implies a call for violence against Israelis and Jews. But some pro-Palestinian demonstrators who use the term in chants regard it as a cry for liberation and freedom from oppression.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Trump Signs Executive Order Targeting College Accreditors

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      President Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order targeting college accreditors, a group of largely unknown but long-established companies that evaluate the educational quality and financial health of universities.The order, one of seven education-related measures he signed on Wednesday, was the latest move by Mr. Trump aimed at shifting the ideological tilt of the higher education system, which he views as hostile to conservatives. His administration has escalated its fight with elite universities in recent weeks, demanding significant changes to hiring, admissions and curriculum practices. At least one, Harvard, has chosen to fight back, setting up a billion-dollar battle for academic independence.A passing grade from accreditation companies, some of which have existed for more than a century, is crucial for colleges to gain access to $120 billion in federal financial aid approved each year. But Mr. Trump has blamed these businesses for promoting the kind of diversity, equity and inclusion policies that his administration has made a priority to stamp out.During his last presidential campaign, Mr. Trump did not speak often about accreditors, which have long been a target of conservative Republicans. But when he did, he reserved some of his most biting attacks for them. In a policy video he posted in the summer of 2023, he vowed to take aim at “radical left accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist maniacs and lunatics.”Mr. Trump’s order would make it easier for schools to switch accreditors and for new accreditors to gain federal approval, according to the White House, which provided fact sheets about the measures. The text of the orders was not immediately available.Bob Shireman, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, a liberal think tank that studies college accreditation policy, among other things, said that Mr. Trump’s order would undermine institutional independence, which, he said, “has helped our universities to be the best in the world.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Tariffs on China Aren’t Likely to Rescue Battered U.S. P.P.E. Industry

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      The few domestic companies that still make protective gear for health care workers have clamored for federal intervention. But they worry President Trump’s trade war with China won’t help.Few domestic industries have been as devastated by the flood of cheap Chinese imports as manufacturers of face masks, exam gloves and other disposable medical gear that protects health care workers from infectious pathogens.The industry’s demise had calamitous consequences during the Covid pandemic, when Beijing halted exports and American hospital workers found themselves at the mercy of a deadly airborne virus that quickly filled the nation’s emergency rooms and morgues.But as President Trump unveiled his tariff regimen earlier this month, and Beijing retaliated with an 84 percent tax on American imports, the few remaining companies that make protective gear in the United States felt mostly unease.“I’m pretty freaked out,” said Lloyd Armbrust, the chief executive of Armbrust American, a pandemic-era startup that produces N95 respirator masks at a factory in Texas. “On one hand, this is the kind of medicine we need if we really are going to become independent of China. On the other hand, this is not responsible industrial policy.”The United States once dominated the field of personal protective equipment, or P.P.E. The virus-filtering N95 mask and the disposable nitrile glove are American inventions, but China now produces more than 90 percent of the medical gear worn by American health care workers.Despite bipartisan vows to end the nation’s dependency on foreign medical products — and to shore up the dozens of domestic manufacturers that sprung up during the pandemic — federal agencies and state governments have resumed their reliance on inexpensive Chinese imports. Earlier this year, when California purchased millions of N95 masks for those affected by the Los Angeles wildfires, it chose masks made in China.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Critics Call Rubio’s Overhaul Plan a Blow to U.S. Values

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      Human rights, democracy, refugees, war crimes.Those are some of the key responsibilities of a State Department office that Secretary of State Marco Rubio intends to shutter as part of a larger reorganization plan for his agency that he unveiled on Tuesday.The official goal of the office — the under secretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights — is to help countries “build more democratic, secure, stable, and just societies.”In a post on Substack on Tuesday, Mr. Rubio called the change a blow against rogue liberal bureaucrats, saying the office had become “a fertile environment for activists to redefine ‘human rights’ and ‘democracy’ and to pursue their projects at the taxpayer expense” even when they conflict with the president’s goals.The office’s nine bureaus will be pared down and in most cases merged into other parts of the department under Mr. Rubio’s plan. Bureaus slated for elimination include those focused on conflict, global criminal justice and combating antisemitism.Two of the bureaus, including a smaller democracy and human rights bureau, will continue to exist under a new Office of the Coordinator for Foreign Assistance and Humanitarian Affairs. But that office will no longer be led by an under secretary.On Tuesday, a State Department spokeswoman, Tammy Bruce, cautioned that the changes did not mean the end of values-based initiatives in U.S. foreign policy, arguing that the goal was a “nimbler” department.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      5 Democrats Visit Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk in Louisiana

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      Five congressional Democrats on Tuesday traveled to Louisiana, where they met with two graduate students who have been detained by federal immigration officials and have become high-profile examples of the Trump administration’s efforts to suppress pro-Palestinian activism on college campuses.The lawmakers’ trip was an effort to bring further attention to the cases of Rumeysa Ozturk, a doctoral student at Tufts University in Massachusetts, and Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia University in New York, who were detained under a rarely used legal provision that allows the secretary of state to deport noncitizens deemed a threat to American foreign policy. The students’ lawyers have argued that their detentions violate their rights to free speech.The visit to Louisiana was the latest attempt by Democrats to use the congressional recess to draw attention to what they see as violations of due process during President Trump’s second term. Over the last week, Democrats have made two visits to El Salvador to highlight the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man whom Trump administration officials have admitted to erroneously deporting.In Louisiana, Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Representatives Jim McGovern and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Troy Carter of Louisiana and Bennie Thompson of Mississippi met with Mr. Khalil and Ms. Ozturk and toured the facilities where they were detained. Both had been transferred hundreds of miles away from their homes and from where they were originally detained.In a news conference outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Basile, La., where Ms. Ozturk is being held, the lawmakers argued that the government had violated the students’ constitutional rights and that both had been targeted for their political views.“Neither of them committed any crimes,” Mr. McGovern said. “They’ve been charged with nothing.”Mr. Markey criticized immigration officials for sending the two students to facilities in Louisiana, arguing the government did so to secure a more favorable hearing for their deportation proceedings. Louisiana has one of the most conservative appeals courts in the United States.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      U.S. Says Tren de Aragua Charges Will ‘Devastate’ Its Infrastructure

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      Federal prosecutors charged six members of the Venezuelan gang and 21 members of a violent splinter group.New York City’s mayor and police commissioner and a top White House immigration official announced on Tuesday two indictments charging 27 people they said were linked to Tren de Aragua, a gang that the Trump administration has said poses a unique threat to America.“Tren de Aragua is not just a street gang — it is a highly structured terrorist organization that has destroyed American families with brutal violence,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a news release touting the charges, adding that the arrests “will devastate TdA’s infrastructure” in three states.Six defendants were named as members or associates of Tren, which the Trump administration has designated as a foreign terrorist organization. The other 21 people, prosecutors said, had broken away to join a violent splinter group called anti-Tren.Still, officials argued, in displaying dozens of seized handguns and rifles, the existence of both groups showed Tren de Aragua’s singular harm. Members of the gangs had engaged in murders and assaults, sex trafficking and human smuggling, according to the indictments.At a news conference, Thomas D. Homan, whom President Trump appointed as “border czar,” said the indictments showed the necessity of his immigration policies.“New York City — you’re a sanctuary city, you’re sanctuary for criminals,” said Mr. Homan, the so-called border czar.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Russia and Ukraine, Under Trump Pressure, Signal Openness to Direct Talks

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      Both the Kremlin and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine suggested this week that they would be open to direct negotiations, making new but tentative diplomatic overtures as President Trump pushes for a peace deal.Mr. Zelensky said on social media late Monday that Ukraine was “ready for any conversation” about a cease-fire that would halt strikes on civilian infrastructure. Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, said on Tuesday that there were “nuances” in the Ukrainian proposal “that it makes sense to discuss” with Kyiv.While Mr. Peskov said there were no concrete plans yet for direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv, the unusual public back-and-forth showed how both sides in the three-year war now seem eager to at least appear interested in negotiations — not least because of Mr. Trump’s eagerness for a deal to end the war.The American diplomatic push is expected to continue on Wednesday in London, where Mr. Zelensky said a Ukrainian delegation would meet with U.S. and European officials. Steve Witkoff, a White House envoy who has met with President Vladimir V. Putin three times since February, is expected to visit Moscow again later this week, the Russian state news agency Tass reported.Mr. Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Sunday that he hoped Russia and Ukraine “will make a deal this week,” adding that the United States stood to “make a fortune” as a result. Last week, in a sign of his impatience, the president had warned that if either Moscow or Kyiv “makes it very difficult” to reach a deal to end the war, the United States could decide that “we’re just going to take a pass.”The emerging possibility of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine has added a new vector to the diplomatic maneuvering. The warring sides haven’t held public peace talks since the early weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, though they have engaged behind the scenes, often through intermediaries.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Tesla’s Falling Profit May Pressure Elon Musk to Return to Day Job

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      The carmaker is expected to report a decline in quarterly earnings after Tesla’s brand suffered because of its chief executive’s role in the Trump administration.Tesla is expected to report on Tuesday that its profits fell in the first three months of the year, which could increase the pressure on Elon Musk, the automaker’s chief executive, to curtail his work for President Trump and spend more time managing the company.Wall Street analysts expect Tesla to say its net profit declined slightly from $1.1 billion in the first quarter of 2024.Tesla sales have been slumping because of intense competition from Chinese carmakers like BYD, a lack of new models and Mr. Musk’s support of far-right causes, which has turned away some liberals and centrists from buying Tesla vehicles.Tesla remains the most valuable automaker in the world as measured by its stock price, but its shares have lost about half their value since mid-December as investors have grown more pessimistic about the company’s prospects and concerned about Mr. Musk’s role in the Trump administration.Tesla has steadily lost market share to Chinese carmakers and more established automakers, like General Motors, Volkswagen and Hyundai, that have been offering a growing selection of electric vehicles.Mr. Musk’s company once hoped to sell 20 million vehicles a year by the end of the decade, twice as many as Toyota. But sales have been sliding after climbing to 1.8 million in 2023. Last year, the company sold 1.7 million cars, and its global sales fell 13 percent in the first quarter of 2025 from a year earlier.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More