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    Gold has surged amid economic uncertainty. Should you buy some?

    As economic uncertainty roils the US, the price of gold has roared to record highs amid investors seeking a place to shield their cash from Donald Trump’s scattergun trade wars.A single ounce of gold cost $3,051.99 on Wednesday, compared with $2,160 in 2024, and gold has historically been seen as the safest place to invest in financially turbulent times.But the buying, and potentially hoarding, of gold need not be restricted to the Scrooge McDucks of this world. In 2025, gold can be bought from Walmart and Amazon – although experts say more established gold dealers are a better source.Once a person has bought the gold, they can do whatever they like with it: there are whole Reddit threads devoted to the best way to bury gold underground. (Dig a deep hole, dump your vacuum-sealed gold in the hole, put a layer of rocks on top of the gold so it can’t be discovered by a thief with a metal detector, then try not to forget where the gold is buried.)Experts suggest not burying the gold, however.“Gold is one of the few elements on the periodic table that does not decay or oxidize over time, so there’s no need to worry about deterioration,” said Alex Deluce, the host of the Gold Telegraph Show, and an expert in gold investment.“However, for safekeeping, store it in a secure location, ideally in a safety deposit box or a well-protected home safe. Keep it away from direct sunlight and heat sources to maintain its condition and security.”Deluce said gold should be purchased “from reputable suppliers who insure all deliveries”, and financial magazines including Forbes have lists devoted to gold-selling companies.To the uninitiated, an equally important question is: what kind of gold should people buy?Taylor Kenney, an economic journalist who works for ITM Trading, a gold and silver dealer based in Arizona, said most gold purchases are of bullion: gold that has been refined and shaped into coins or bars.Some of those bars are the big heavy type that is frequently stolen from banks in heist movies, but those tend to be very heavy, which means they are very expensive. Instead, many gold purchasers will be buying much smaller bars.A handy example was seen in the recent case of Bob Menendez, the now former Democratic senator who in January was sentenced to 11 years in prison for receiving bribes.Photos shared by the FBI showed that Menendez had an amazing a hoard of gold bullion in a variety of sizes: he had a couple of gold bars that weighed just one ounce.According to the United States Gold Bureau – which is not a government body, but instead a cleverly named private gold-trading company – the one-ounce bars are the most commonly traded around the world. Roughly the size of a US military dog tag, one-ounce bars were listed at Walmart for $3,122.10 on Friday, although anyone who has ever ordered and never received a table lamp from Walmart might want to try elsewhere.Menendez had also accumulated, through nefarious means, some one-kilo gold bars, each of which, at today’s prices, is worth just under $100,000.“Now is the perfect time to buy gold,” said Kenney.She said gold prices are rising “in response to inflation, geopolitical unrest and economic uncertainty”.Kenney added: “As dollar dominance is called into question, gold carries no counterparty risk and serves as a true store of wealth, unlike fiat currencies [such as the US dollar] that can be printed at will. The same reason central banks are buying gold is the same reason that average citizens should be buying gold as well.”Gina Miller, the founder of Moneyshe.com, is less convinced. She told CityAM that while gold has traditionally been viewed as a safe investment, “its track record reveals significant limitations as a long-term investment”.“For instance, while gold surged 148% from October 2008 to August 2011, it took nearly nine years, until July 2020, to reach new highs. Such prolonged stagnation makes it unappealing for investors seeking steady, long-term growth,” Miller said.With gold at record-high prices, it is unlikely that people will be able to buy the metal and flip it for quick returns. Instead, experts say, people should see gold as a small part of an investment portfolio, rather than pumping all their money into it and putting it in a big vault.As Trump shows no signs of backing down on his trade battles, having a few dog tags of gold stored in a safe space, or, if you’re Menendez, “jammed into jackets and boots”, might not be the worst option. More

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    In these dark times, Americans must harness the power of the civil rights movement again | Al Sharpton

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    It can often be challenging to keep track of everything in Donald Trump’s US; the executive orders, the changes to decades-long protocols, the draconian legislation, the abandonment of established policies – and just the utter chaos.That in itself is part of the Trump administration’s strategy – throw everything at us all at once to see what sticks and what they can get away with. There is, in fact, so much happening simultaneously that it is virtually impossible to tackle it all.That is why efforts on the ground, in our communities and in our neighbourhoods are as vital as they ever were. Just like the grassroots civil rights movement of the 1960s forced change at the top, now too is a moment when our work can and must push back against Trump and a far right that is strategically dismantling every measure of progress. We must resist in order to exist.View image in fullscreenWhen Trump was being sworn into office on 20 January, my organisation, National Action Network, held a massive rally at the historic African Methodist Episcopal church in Washington DC. It was important for us to gather at this church, at a location that has long served as a place of refuge and comfort during dark times. As we once again find ourselves caught in the winds of uncertainty, chaos and injustice, we must organise, strategise and execute our own plan of action in order to save any measure of advancement and our hard-won civil rights.Despite the cruelty emanating from the Oval Office, there is a lot that can be done at the state and local level, and in our communities. In fact, state laws and policies often affect people more directly than federal policies at times. Therefore engaging state- and locally elected officials is vital – let them hear from you. After all, they are in office to serve the people and serve our interests, so our interests must be known. Whether it’s women’s reproductive rights, voting rights, LGBTQ+ rights, protecting immigrants, or any other issue, our concerns must be addressed. This is not a time for sitting back and watching helplessly; there is a lot that we can and must do to peacefully fight back.Here’s how we can push backOne of the first executive orders that Trump signed in office was to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes in federal agencies. Many corporations, such as Target, McDonald’s, Walmart and others, unfortunately have fallen in line and capitulated to pressure from the right to either scale back significantly their DEI policies, or eliminate them altogether. It is why I announced on Martin Luther King Day that National Action Network will lead a strategic boycott of two companies that have dropped their DEI commitments.We’ve put together a group that is engaged in a 90-day study of which corporations have abandoned their DEI initiatives the most – and how much of their consumer base is in the Black community and how much of our wealth they receive. We will announce which companies we’re strategically boycotting at National Action Network’s upcoming annual conference, held from 2 to 5 April at the Sheraton Times Square hotel in New York City.Not only will we boycott specific entities that don’t respect us, but we are also simultaneously supporting those who stand with us. After retail giant Costco announced that it will remain firm in its DEI policies, I led hundreds of people in a “buy-cott” at a Costco in East Harlem. That was followed by similar buy-cotts at Costco locations in New Jersey, Los Angeles and all over the south. It is vital to proactively support those who support us. We must remember why we have DEI in the first place – in order to rectify institutional policies that purposefully excluded us. Trump and other businesses may attack DEI, but they cannot dictate where we spend our hard-earned dollars. Our actions will speak for us even as they try to silence us.This is just one example of how we can push back individually and collectively during these challenging and dark times. There is much that we can do at the local community level to protect ourselves and our neighbours, and speak out where needed. When they cut social services, help those less fortunate and help people understand how they can navigate an increasingly confusing system. When they continue to eliminate DEI and voting protections, make sure people are empowered to know how to weather the storms – and how to still participate in the electoral process.When they go after reproductive rights, help women know where and how they can seek the care they may need and stay safe. When they target undocumented immigrants, make sure they know their rights. When they target the LGBTQ+ community, stand with them and continue to push for greater equality and inclusion. Over these next four years, it will be incumbent upon all of us to unite as one because the vile attacks against us are resting on a theory of divide and conquer.During the great civil rights movement, Black Americans and our allies organised, marched, boycotted and put enough pressure on the White House to bring about substantive change that was then codified into law. People didn’t just give us our rights out of the kindness of their hearts; we demanded them. It was pressure from the grassroots that then forced elected officials to act. We once again find ourselves living in an era where our work, our voices and our actions can and must speak volumes and bring about a nation where all of us are valued, protected and afforded the same rights and liberties.Trump and the right are counting on us to be defeated or deflated; we must strategise and push back because there are more of us than them. Those of us who care about diversity, inclusion, equality and justice far outweigh those working to destroy it. We just need to use our power effectively – and as one.

    The Rev Al Sharpton is an American Baptist minister, civil rights activist and radio talkshow host More

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    US tourism industry faces drop-off as immigration agenda deters travellers

    A string of high-profile arrests and detentions of travellers is likely to cause a major downturn in tourism to the US, with latest figures already showing a serious drop-off, tourist experts said.Several western travellers have recently been rejected at the US border on increasingly flimsy grounds under Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, some of them shackled and held in detention centers in poor conditions for weeks.Germany updated travel guidance for travelling to the US, warning that breaking entry rules could lead not just to a rejection as before, but arrest or even detention. Three German citizens have been held for prolonged periods despite apparently having committed no crime nor any obvious violation of US visa or immigration rules – including one US green card holder who was detained at Boston’s Logan airport.The UK Foreign Office, too, has bolstered its advice to warn of a risk of arrest after Becky Burke, a tourist from Wales who had been backpacking across America, was stopped at the border with Canada and held for three weeks in a detention facility. Last week members of the UK Subs, a British punk band, were denied entry and detained after they landed at Los Angeles international airport.Even before the most recent spate of detentions, forecast visits to the country this year had been revised downward from a projected 5% rise to a 9% decrease by Tourism Economics, an industry monitoring group, which cited “polarising Trump Administration policies and rhetoric”, particularly around tariffs.It predicted that the drop-off would lead to a $64bn shortfall in the US tourist trade.“There’s been a dramatic shift in our outlook,” said Adam Sacks, the president of Tourism Economics, told the Washington Post. “You’re looking at a much weaker economic engine than what otherwise would’ve been, not just because of tariffs, but the rhetoric and condescending tone around it.”The decline has been most pronounced from neighbouring Canada, which Trump has menaced with crippling tariffs and repeatedly threatened to annex outright. The number of Canadians returning by road from the US fell by 23% in February, year on year, while air traffic fell 13% on a year earlier, according to Canadian government statistics.A Canadian actor made headlines this week when she revealed US authorities had handcuffed her and moved her out of state to a detention center, where she spent several weeks in “inhumane conditions” despite not having been accused of any crime.Neri Karra Sillaman, an entrepreneurship expert at Oxford University, told Fast Company that travellers now viewed entering the US as “too difficult or unpredictable”.“Even if you get a visa, you have the risk of being detained or to be denied,” she said, adding that even as a valid US visa holder, married to an American, she was hesitating to visit the country in the current climate.That climate was in further evidence this week as Denmark and Finland issued cautionary advice to transgender travellers, following US state department rule changes spurred by the Trump administration decree that it would recognise only two genders. The Danish foreign ministry advised travellers who use the gender designation “X” on their passport to contact the US embassy before travelling, while Finland cautioned travellers whose gender had changed that they might not gain entry.The recent episodes are all the more striking because they involve countries long allied to the US, although students and academics from India and the Middle East have also been detained in recent days despite holding valid visas. While visitors from many regions have long had difficulty entering the US, immigration officials have traditionally taken a more lenient stance towards travellers from allied nations.Pedro Rios, the director of the American Friends Service Committee, a non-profit group that aids migrants, told AP that it was unprecedented in the 22 years he had worked at the southern border for travellers from western Europe and Canada to be detained with such regularity.“It’s definitely unusual with these cases so close together, and the rationale for detaining these people doesn’t make sense,” he said. “The only reason I see is there is a much more fervent anti-immigrant atmosphere.” More

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    Here’s what you need to know about your rights when entering the US

    Since Donald Trump returned to the White House, he has carried out the hardline immigration policies he promised on the campaign trail.Trump’s administration sent migrants to the Guantánamo Bay naval base in Cuba – with little access to legal counsel – and singled out two pro-Palestinian academics for deportation. The administration also failed to return El Salvador-destined deportation flights in potential violation of a court order.But in recent weeks, immigration authorities have also repeatedly detained US-bound tourists at the border, sparking public and diplomatic outrage abroad and fears among many people planning trips to the US, or living in the country on visas.Examples have made global headlines. A British woman said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detained her for three weeks after a mixup at the US-Canada border. Canadian businesswoman and actor Jasmine Mooney said she was detained by Ice for two weeks. Jessica Brösche, a 29-year-old tattoo artist from Germany, was held in immigration detention for six weeks before returning home.There’s suspicion that in some cases people were turned away over anti-Trump views. Among them is a French scientist who was denied entry after immigration officers at an airport found messages on his phone that were critical of Trump, France’s minister of higher education said.With serious concerns growing about whether visitors can safely travel to the US without fear of landing in immigration detention, here is a brief guide to international visitors’ rights.I have valid travel documents. Can customs officers stop and search me?Yes. US customs officers can stop people at entry points to assess whether they can come into the US. They are permitted to search travelers’ belongings for contraband, according to the ACLU of Pennsylvania.They can do this even if there’s nothing suspicious about you or your belongings. Customs agents are not allowed to search you or conduct another inspection “based on your religion, race, national origin, gender, ethnicity or political beliefs”.What about my mobile phone?The government asserts that their authority to search travelers without individualized suspicion also includes searches of electronic devices, including cellphones and laptops. That said, this assertion remains “a contested legal issue”, the ACLU said. Customs officers have at times asked travelers to give them their phone or laptop passwords when they going to or from the US.And if I refuse to unlock my devices?Citizens of the US can’t be denied entry if they refuse to provide passwords or unlock their devices. However, if they refuse, it could prompt a delay, still more questioning and customs officers taking their phone for further inspection.This should also be true for US lawful permanent residents who have been admitted to the US before and maintain their immigration status, as their green cards “can’t be revoked without a hearing before an immigration judge”. For visa holders and travelers from visa waiver countries, they are at risk of being denied entry if they refuse to unlock devices, the ACLU said.If my country is in the visa waiver program, can I enter?In general, the visa waiver program allows citizens of about four dozen countries to enter for up to 90 days without a visa for tourism or business. Citizens of the US, in turn, can travel up to 90 days in program countries.However, travelers from waiver program countries still need valid Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) approval before they come here for at least 72 hours prior to getting on a flight, the New York Times explains.The tricky part is that you can’t get an ESTA if you traveled to certain places after specified times, such as Cuba after 12 January 2021, the Times said. Without an ESTA, a tourist visa is necessary.I have an ESTA. Does that mean I can work?Visitors coming to the US with an ESTA are prohibited from studying or engaging in permanent work. ESTA visitors also give up many rights, such as the right to fight deportation – meaning that persons traveling with an ESTA could wind up facing “mandatory detention”, the Times said.Does a visa allow me to work?There are three types of visas for non-immigrant visitors to the US. There is a visitor visa allowing temporary entry for business purposes, a tourism visa, and a visa for business and travel.The three visas last as long as a decade but visitors with these visas can stay a maximum of six months in the US. Among other things, visitors with these visas are not allowed to do permanent work or study, or engage in paid performances, according to the New York Times.Even if your documents are in order, that doesn’t guarantee admission into the US. According to the Department of State, customs officials “have authority to permit or deny admission to the United States”.What happens if I’m detained?Civil rights advocates now suggest that visitors into the US, especially people who are not citizens, bring information to call an immigration lawyer or emergency contact if they encounter problems. “The stories are definitely concerning,” Noor Zafar, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, told the Washington Post.Zafar reportedly said that if travelers are detained, it’s advisable to comply with immigration officers’ directions – and get in touch with a lawyer immediately.So what rights do I actually have?Visitors to the US do have the right to remain silent. But choosing to do so at an entry point could jeopardize entry.If a customs agent asks a visitor with a tourist visa whether they were going to work during their stay, and that person doesn’t answer, then it could result in their being denied entry.If a visitor is not allowed to enter the US, they can “withdraw” their intent to do so and be permitted to return home. Typically their visa gets canceled and they fly back right away.An officer could deny this withdrawal, however, and detain the visitor. That is because these encounters technically take place outside the US and constitutional protections don’t hold. As a result, detainees in this situation don’t automatically have the right to an attorney.How does this work?“If you’re a foreign national, first understand you haven’t affected an entry despite being physically on US soil until you’re admitted properly,” said immigration attorney Michael Wildes, managing partner of Wildes and Weinberg and a professor at the Cardozo School of Law.“It’s a term of art when you’re admitted fully to the United States,” he said. When a person lands on US soil but is not technically admitted, “you might be considered to be what’s called an ‘arriving alien’.“You have greater rights as a criminal than as a foreign national coming with a visa.” More

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    Trump news at a glance: Musk is denied look at China war plans and more visitors are refused entry to US

    Musk has China conflict of interest, says TrumpDonald Trump said on Friday that plans for possible war with China should not be shared with Elon Musk because of his business interests, a rare admission that the billionaire faces conflicts of interests in his role as a senior adviser to the US president.Trump rejected reports that Musk would be briefed on how the United States would fight a hypothetical war with China, saying: “Elon has businesses in China. And he would be susceptible, perhaps, to that.”Read the full storyUK punk band denied US entryMembers of a British punk rock band said they were denied entry and detained in the US. UK Subs bassist Alvin Gibbs, and bandmates Marc Carrey and Stefan Häublein, were deported back to the UK following their detention. Only vocalist Charlie Harper had been allowed entry. Harper ended up playing the band’s scheduled show in Los Angeles with a group of stand-in musicians.Read the full storyAnger at US blocking Canadian access to cross-border libraryThe US has blocked Canadian access to a library straddling the Canada-US border, drawing criticism from a Quebec town where people have long enjoyed easy entry to the space.The entrance to the Haskell Free Library and Opera House is located between Stanstead, Quebec, and Derby Line, Vermont, with an electrical tape marking the border line. The library’s entrance is on the Vermont side and Canadian visitors could previously enter using the sidewalk and entrance on the American side. Now they have to go through a formal border crossing.Read the full storyColumbia University caves to Trump demands to restore $400mColumbia University has yielded to a series of changes demanded by the Trump administration as a pre-condition for restoring $400m in federal funding the government pulled this month amid allegations that the school tolerated antisemitism on campus.Among the most contentious of the nine demands, Columbia agreed to place its Middle Eastern, south Asian and African studies department under a new official, a memo said, taking control away from its faculty. “In this role, the senior vice-provost will review the educational programs to ensure the educational offerings are comprehensive and balanced,” the memo read, explaining that the review would start with the Center for Palestine Studies; the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies; the Middle East Institute; and other university programs focused on the Middle East.Read the full storyTrump says Boeing will build new US fighter jetsDonald Trump on Friday awarded Boeing the contract to build the US air force’s most sophisticated fighter jet, handing the company a much-needed win. Trump, the 47th US president, announced the airline had beaten out Lockheed Martin for the deal and added that the new jet will be called the F-47.Read the full storyTeachers to sue Trump over education orderTeachers unions and Democratic politicians joined in denouncing Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at eliminating the US Department of Education, with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) saying simply: “See you in court.”Read the full story530,000 people will have legal US status revokedTrump officials will revoke the temporary legal status of 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans in the United States, according to a Federal Register notice on Friday, in the latest expansion of his crackdown on immigration. It will be effective 24 April.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

    The Trump administration will reportedly fire almost all employees at the homeland security department’s civil rights office, in a move that will undermine its ability to provide oversight as he implements hardline immigration policies.

    The US president signalled flexibility on new tariffs, due to come in on 2 April. Without giving further details, Trump said: “The word flexibility is an important word. Sometimes there’s flexibility, so there’ll be flexibility.”

    Trump also partook in some royal intrigue with a social media post declaring his love for Britain’s King Charles and saying he would welcome a reported “secret offer” billed as easing tensions with Canada. More

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    US homeland security guts three oversight offices, laying off 100 workers

    The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Friday gutted three oversight offices by placing more than 100 workers on paid leave, a Trump administration official and two former officials said.The workers, including those in the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, were given layoff notices as part of a large-scale government reduction by the Trump administration, one of the affected staffers said, requesting anonymity to discuss the matter.“These offices have obstructed immigration enforcement by adding bureaucratic hurdles and undermining DHS’s mission,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “Rather than supporting law enforcement efforts, they often function as internal adversaries that slow down operations.“McLaughlin said the offices would be subject to a “reduction in force”, the government term for layoffs.Trump launched a wide-ranging immigration crackdown after taking office on 20 January, pulling resources from across the federal government to focus on enforcement. Advocates have raised concerns that the more aggressive efforts could infringe on the rights of immigrants and US citizens alike.White House officials are reviewing federal agencies’ downsizing plans, a move expected to result in the mass firing of thousands of government workers within the coming weeks, Reuters reported on Friday.Trump had given the agencies until 13 March to draw up plans for a second wave of mass layoffs as part of his rapid-fire effort to reshape and reduce the size of the federal government, which he has called bloated and inefficient.The DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties investigates potential rights violations within the department and fields complaints from the public.The other two offices targeted were the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman and the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, which served similar oversight functions.Thousands of workers fired in Trump’s effort to slash the government workforce have sued to have their jobs reinstated by federal judges. More

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    Trump administration guts homeland security department’s civil rights office, according to report – live

    The Trump administration has moved to fire almost all employees at the homeland security department’s civil rights office, the New York Times reports, in a move that will undermine its ability to provide oversight as he implements hardline immigration policies.Here’s more on the significance of the office’s closure, from the Times:
    The more than 100 staff members were told they would be put on leave and formally fired in May, according to five current and former government officials. Mr. Trump also closed the ombudsman for Citizenship and Immigration Services, another office responsible for scrutinizing the administration’s legal immigration policies.
    The moves were the latest attempt by Mr. Trump to root out civil rights divisions and oversight mechanisms across government agencies. But the shuttering of the Homeland Security Department’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties was particularly notable given the lack of transparency over the administration’s immigration crackdown.
    Mr. Trump has been determined in his second term to ensure that his administration is made of up of loyalists who will not try to block his agenda.
    Just this week, the Trump administration stonewalled a federal judge seeking information about the use of an 18th-century wartime law to deport immigrants with little to no due process to a prison in El Salvador.
    “It’s a demonstration of their total contempt for any checks on their power,” said Deborah Fleischaker, a former civil rights office worker and chief of staff of Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the Biden administration. She said the office “endeavored to make the D.H.S. mission work with respect for civil rights, civil liberties and privacy.”
    “This is a clear message that those things do not matter to this administration,” she added.
    Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Homeland Security Department, said the decision was meant to “streamline oversight to remove roadblocks to enforcement.”
    “These offices have obstructed immigration enforcement by adding bureaucratic hurdles and undermining D.H.S.’s mission,” Ms. McLaughlin said. “Rather than supporting law enforcement efforts, they often function as internal adversaries that slow down operations.”
    NYT: Does the $400m of federal cuts at Columbia have special signficance for Trump? The New York Times has highlighted a decades-old real estate dispute between Columbia University and Donald Trump, noting that dispute also hinged over $400m.Today, the newspaper reports:
    Some former university officials are quietly wondering whether the ultimately unsuccessful property transaction sowed the seeds of Mr. Trump’s current focus on Columbia. His administration has demanded that the university turn over vast control of its policies and even curricular decisions in its effort to quell antisemitism on campus. It has also canceled federal grants and contracts at Columbia — valued at $400 million.
    The New York Times reports that the Trump Organization and the White House declined to comment on the story.Why didn’t Columbia University file a lawsuit to fight back against Trump? Yesterday, the Chronicle of Higher Education asked why Columbia, one of the wealthiest private institutions in the US, had not filed a lawsuit to protect itself from the political demands Trump was making.Today, after Columbia announced it was giving into several of the president’s demand, an unnamed Columbia University administrator offered several reasons for Columbia’s choice not to battle Trump in court, including that school leaders had some agreement with what Trump wanted, the Wall Street Journal reports:
    A Columbia senior administrator said the school considered legal options to challenge the Trump team but ultimately determined the federal government has so many available levers to claw back money, it would be a difficult fight. Additionally the school believed there was considerable overlap between needed campus changes and Trump’s demands.
    How US news organizations are characterizing Columbia’s deal with Trump:Wall Street Journal: Columbia Yields to Trump in Battle Over Federal FundingNew York Post: Columbia caves to Trump’s demands after $400M threat over campus antisemitism, will institute mask ban and more oversightNew York Times: Columbia Makes Concessions to Trump Amid Bid to Reclaim Federal FundsAxios: Columbia complies with Trump demands to regain $400 million in fundingColumbia University has agreed to a series of changes demanded by the Trump Administration as a precondition for restoring $400m in federal funding the government pulled this month amid allegations that the school tolerated antisemitism on campus, Reuters reports. More reactions to this news shortly, but first, what Reuters is reporting:
    Columbia acquiesced to most of the administration’s demands in a memo that laid out measures including banning face masks on campus, empowering security officers to remove or arrest individuals, and taking control of the department that offers courses on the Middle East from its faculty.
    The Ivy League university’s response is being watched by other universities that the administration has sanctioned as it advances its policy objectives in areas ranging from campus protests to transgender sports and diversity initiatives.Among the most contentious of the nine demands, Columbia agreed to place its Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies department under a new official, the memo said, taking control away from its faculty. The demand had raised alarm among professors at Columbia and elsewhere, who worried that permitting the federal government to dictate how a department is run would set a dangerous precedent.
    Republican lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives last year criticized at least two professors of Palestinian descent working in the department for their comments about the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
    The school has also hired three dozen special officers who have the power to arrest people on campus and has revised its anti-discrimination policies, including its authority to sanction campus organizations, the memo said. The school also said it is searching for new faculty members to “ensure intellectual diversity.”
    A few more key details from today’s deportation flights hearingAs we noted earlier, judge James Boasberg spent some time in a hearing today criticizing the justice department’s conduct and rhetoric in the lawsuit over whether the Trump administration can use an 18th century wartime law to rapidly deport Venezuelans to El Salvador.But the judge also took issue with the substance of their legal argument. During Friday’s hearing, Boasberg also said the Trump administration’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan immigrants carries “incredibly troublesome” policy ramifications, the Associated Press reported. “Why was this law essentially signed in the dark and these people essentially rushed on to planes?” Boasberg asked. “It seems to be that you only do that if you know it’s a problem and you want to get them out of the country before lawsuits can be filed.”The judge pointed to the US supreme court’s finding that people imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay after the 11 September 2001, terrorist attacks were entitled to challenge whether they had any ties to al-Qaida.Politico’s Kyle Cheney reports that Lee Gelernt, the lawyer for the ACLU, also said at the hearing that some people on the deportation flights from the US to El Salvador were returned from El Salvador after the government refused to take them, raising more questions about the speed of the deportations.A federal judge and the Trump administration have been engaged in a very active stalemate all week over whether Trump’s justice department violated the judge’s order to turn around planes that were in the act of deporting people to El Salvador under a legally contentious “wartime” law.To put it more bluntly, the issue is whether the Trump administration has to listen to what judges tell them to do and what consequences the administration will face if they simply decide they don’t have to.Trump and many of his supporters have called for the judge’s impeachment over his insistence that the Trump administration is bound by court orders; John Roberts, the chief justice of US supreme court, made a rare public statement to say that what Republicans were doing was not proper behavior.Here’s the latest from the AP:
    A federal judge examining the Trump administration’s use of an 18th-century wartime law to deport Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador vowed Friday to “get to the bottom” of whether the government defied his order to turn the planes around.Chief Judge James Boasberg is trying to determine if the administration ignored his turnaround order last weekend when at least two planeloads of immigrants were still in flight.“I will get to the bottom of whether they violated my order, who ordered this and what the consequences will be,” Boasberg said during a hearing Friday for a lawsuit challenging the deportations.Earlier Friday, the Justice Department informed the judge that top leaders in President Donald Trump’s administration are debating whether to invoke a “state secrets privilege” in response to the district judge’s questions about the deportation flights.The Republican administration has largely resisted the judge’s request, calling it an “unnecessary judicial fishing” expedition. Boasberg dismissed its response as “woefully insufficient,” increasing the possibility that he may hold administration officials in contempt of court.
    Denmark and Finland urge caution for US-bound transgender peopleDenmark and Finland have updated their US travel advice for transgender people, joining the handful of European countries that have sought to caution US-bound travelers in recent weeks as reports emerge of ordeals at the American border, my colleague Ashifa Kassam, our European affairs correspondent, reports.Denmark said this week it had begun advising transgender travelers to contact the US embassy in Copenhagen before departure to ensure there would be no issues with travel documents.“If your passport has the gender designation X or you have changed gender, it is recommended to contact the US embassy prior to travel for guidance on how to proceed,” the Danish travel advisory page now reads.Good news for white collar criminals? Hundreds resigning at Wall Street’s top regulatorWall Street’s top regulator is facing a staff exodus across key departments as hundreds have agreed to take resignation offers amid Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s efforts to remake the US government, five people familiar with the matter told Reuters.Departures from the US Securities and Exchange Commission, including by senior staff and enforcement lawyers, could significantly hamper the watchdog’s efforts to police markets and protect investors, the sources said. The exits stem from Trump and Musk’s efforts to slash the federal workforce.Since the White House began offering voluntary departures across the civil service in January, more than 600 people have agreed to leave the SEC, said two sources with direct knowledge and two people briefed on the matter. Friday is the deadline for the SEC’s latest resignation incentive programs.US court will not pause ruling requiring Trump administration to reinstate 25,000 workersA US appeals court refused to pause a judge’s ruling requiring the administration of President Donald Trump to reinstate 25,000 workers at 18 federal agencies who lost their jobs as part of Trump’s purge of the federal workforce, Reuters reports.The 18 agencies involved in the case include the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Agriculture, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services and the Treasury Department.Most agencies have said that they fired a few hundred probationary workers, but others terminated far more. The treasury department fired about 7,600 people, the Department of Agriculture about 5,700 and the Department of Health and Human Services more than 3,200, according to court filings.The Trump administration has moved to fire almost all employees at the homeland security department’s civil rights office, the New York Times reports, in a move that will undermine its ability to provide oversight as he implements hardline immigration policies.Here’s more on the significance of the office’s closure, from the Times:
    The more than 100 staff members were told they would be put on leave and formally fired in May, according to five current and former government officials. Mr. Trump also closed the ombudsman for Citizenship and Immigration Services, another office responsible for scrutinizing the administration’s legal immigration policies.
    The moves were the latest attempt by Mr. Trump to root out civil rights divisions and oversight mechanisms across government agencies. But the shuttering of the Homeland Security Department’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties was particularly notable given the lack of transparency over the administration’s immigration crackdown.
    Mr. Trump has been determined in his second term to ensure that his administration is made of up of loyalists who will not try to block his agenda.
    Just this week, the Trump administration stonewalled a federal judge seeking information about the use of an 18th-century wartime law to deport immigrants with little to no due process to a prison in El Salvador.
    “It’s a demonstration of their total contempt for any checks on their power,” said Deborah Fleischaker, a former civil rights office worker and chief of staff of Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the Biden administration. She said the office “endeavored to make the D.H.S. mission work with respect for civil rights, civil liberties and privacy.”
    “This is a clear message that those things do not matter to this administration,” she added.
    Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Homeland Security Department, said the decision was meant to “streamline oversight to remove roadblocks to enforcement.”
    “These offices have obstructed immigration enforcement by adding bureaucratic hurdles and undermining D.H.S.’s mission,” Ms. McLaughlin said. “Rather than supporting law enforcement efforts, they often function as internal adversaries that slow down operations.”
    Donald Trump’s purge of all DEI-related initiatives in the US government has had the knock-on effect of undercutting efforts to fight trafficking, the Guardian’s Katie McQue reports:The US government has ordered law enforcement agencies, the state department and some non-profit organizations working to combat sex trafficking to remove references to victims’ LGBTQ+ identities, race and immigration status from their communications and websites, a move experts warn will endanger vulnerable minors.Interviews with a prosecutor, government personnel, trafficking non-profit executives, as well as email correspondence reviewed by the Guardian show that agencies and organizations are complying with the orders to avoid losing federal funding. Experts in child safety say the policy is fostering a climate of fear, forcing organizations to acquiesce in order to retain crucial funding at the expense of helping victims.The directive stems from executive orders issued by Donald Trump targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and LGBTQ+ communities. Some non-profits receiving federal funding have been prohibited from using the terms “marginalized”, “vulnerable” and “immigrants” in correspondence from grant funders.Donald Trump signed the executive orders nixing DEI on 20 January, the day of the presidential inauguration. One order, titled “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing”, mandates the removal of policies, programs, and activities relating to “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility”. Another, titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” instructs the removal of all “radical gender ideology guidance, communication, policies, and forms”.Politico reports that the federal judge weighing the legality of the Trump administration’s rapid deportation of suspected Venezuelan gang members under the Alien Enemies Act is criticizing the justice department’s conduct in the case.Recent filings from the government have used “the kind of intemperate and disrespectful language I’m not used to hearing from the United States”, judge James Boasberg said at the hearing, which is ongoing.More about this ongoing legal battle, in which the Trump administration may have allowed planes carrying the migrants to proceed to El Salvador despite Boasberg’s order:We are now two months in to Donald Trump’s second term, but his predecessor Joe Biden reportedly continues to believe that he could still be in office right now, if only things had gone a little differently.“Biden has no pangs of regret, a person familiar with his private conversations said. He remains defiant and believes Trump’s victory shows the party did itself no favors by pushing him to drop out of the race, the source said,” NBC News reports today in a piece looking at Biden’s low-key life since exiting the White House on 20 January.It’s hard to prove a negative, but let’s briefly recount the facts of Biden’s botched re-election bid: his decision to embark on it in the first place, even though his approval ratings were poor, the months of campaigning that did little to change public opinion, his disastrous debate against Trump, the pressure campaign from his own allies that led him to quit and hand over to Kamala Harris, to no avail.Nonetheless, NBC reports that Joe and Jill Biden have offered their services to the Democratic party, should they need them:
    Former President Joe Biden has told some Democratic leaders he’ll raise funds, campaign and do anything else necessary for Democrats to recover lost ground as the Trump administration rolls back programs the party helped design, according to people close to him.
    Biden privately met last month with the new Democratic National Committee chairman, Ken Martin, and offered to help as the party struggles to regain its viability amid polling that shows its popularity has been sinking, the people said.
    So far, Biden’s overture seems to have fallen flat. Democrats find themselves adrift, casting about for a compelling messenger.
    Whoever that is, it’s not Biden, many party activists and donors contend. He’s tethered to the 2024 defeat and, at 82, is a symbol more of the party’s past than its future, they argue.
    “Who’s going to want Joe Biden back in the game?” said a major Biden supporter, speaking on condition of anonymity to talk candidly about him.
    White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino has tweeted out a better photo of the F-47 fighter jet, which Donald Trump announced in the Oval Office earlier today:As defense secretary Pete Hegseth was leaving the White House, he encountered reporters who wanted to know if the jet’s numerical designation – 47 – had anything to do with Trump, who is the 47th president. Hegseth did not respond.A Minnesota veteran who found work at the Veterans Benefits Administration after suffering two traumatic brain injuries on overseas deployments stood in front of hundreds of people and five Democratic state attorneys general on Thursday night and recalled the moment she learned she lost her job.“All I was given was a Post-it note,” Joy Marver said, inspiring gasps and boos from a raucous crowd. “The Post-it note contained just the HR email address and my supervisor’s phone number. This came from an external source. Doge terminated me. No one in my chain of command knew I was being terminated. No one knew. It took two weeks to get my termination email sent to me.”The firing was so demoralizing she said she considered driving her truck off a bridge but instead went into the VA for crisis care.“Don’t fuck with a veteran,” she concluded.For the full story, click here: More

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    Columbia University caves to demands to restore $400m from Trump administration

    Columbia University has agreed to a series of changes demanded by the Trump administration as a pre-condition for restoring $400m in federal funding the government pulled this month amid allegations that the school tolerated antisemitism on campus.The university released a memo outlining its agreement with Donald Trump’s administration hours before an extended deadline set by the government was to expire.Columbia acquiesced to most of the administration’s demands in a memo that laid out measures including banning face masks on campus, empowering security officers to remove or arrest individuals, and taking control of the department that offers courses on the Middle East from its faculty.The Ivy League university’s response is being watched by other universities that the administration has sanctioned as it advances its policy objectives in areas ranging from campus protests to transgender sports and diversity initiatives.The administration has warned at least 60 other universities of possible action over alleged failure to comply with federal civil rights laws related to antisemitism. It has also targeted at least three law firms that the president says helped his political opponents or helped prosecute him unfairly.Among the most contentious of the nine demands, Columbia agreed to place its Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies department under a new official, the memo said, taking control away from its faculty.The university will appoint a new senior administrator to review curriculum and faculty to make sure they are balanced, and provide fresh leadership at the department, which offers courses on Middle Eastern politics and related subjects.The demand had raised alarm among professors at Columbia and elsewhere, who worried that permitting the federal government to dictate how a department is run would set a dangerous precedent.Republican lawmakers in the US House of Representatives last year criticized at least two professors of Palestinian descent working in the department for their comments about the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.The school has also hired three dozen special officers who have the power to arrest people on campus and has revised its anti-discrimination policies, including its authority to sanction campus organizations, the memo said.Face masks to conceal identities are no longer allowed, and any protesters must now identify themselves when asked, the memo said.The school also said it is searching for new faculty members to “ensure intellectual diversity”. Columbia plans to fill joint positions in the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies and the international affairs school in an effort to ensure “excellence and fairness in Middle East studies”, the memo said. The sudden shutdown of millions of dollars in federal funding to Columbia University this month was already disrupting medical and scientific research at the school, researchers said. More