White House says it will appeal against Harvard ruling
The Trump administration said it will appeal a judge’s ruling ordering the federal government to reverse cuts of more than $2.6bn in funding to Harvard, the AP reports.
Liz Huston, a White House spokesperson, issued a statement attacking the federal judge, Allison Burroughs, who found that the US government’s cuts to the Ivy League university constituted illegal retaliation. The school lost its funding after it refused to capitulate to the administration’s demands to change policies and governance, part of Trump’s aggressive attacks on higher education.
“Just as President Trump correctly predicted on the day of the hearing, this activist Obama-appointed judge was always going to rule in Harvard’s favor, regardless of the facts,” Huston said. “To any fair-minded observer, it is clear that Harvard university failed to protect their students from harassment and allowed discrimination to plague their campus for years. Harvard does not have a constitutional right to taxpayer dollars and remains ineligible for grants in the future.”
The White House’s continued attacks on federal judges who rule against the administration’s policies have drawn condemnation from Democrats and raised safety concerns for some judges and their families.
Key events
Evening summary
It’s been a busy afternoon of US politics news. Here are some key events and links from the day:
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Children in Florida will no longer be required to receive vaccines against preventable diseases including measles, mumps, chickenpox, polio and hepatitis.
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The governors of California, Oregon and Washington announced on Wednesday the creation of a West Coast Health Alliance aimed at safeguarding access to vaccines.
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A letter published on Wednesday from more than 1,000 past and present workers of the Department of Health and Human Services department (HHS) has demanded the resignation of Robert F Kennedy Jr.
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Several survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse signaled their support on Wednesday for a bipartisan resolution to release all the files related to the convicted sex offender.
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A so-called “missing minute” of CCTV footage, a key ingredient of conspiracy theories surrounding the prison death of the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has been found, contradicting the assertion of Pam Bondi, the attorney general, that it was recorded over.
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A federal judge on Wednesday ruled Donald Trump’s administration unlawfully terminated about $2.2bn in grants awarded to Harvard University and can no longer cut off research funding to the Ivy League school.
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Jeff Landry, the Republican governor of Louisiana, said he backed the president’s threat to send federal troops to his state.
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Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, warned that the US military would continue to target vessels belonging to alleged Venezuelan drug cartels.
Maya Yang
House Republicans have voted to establish a new subcommittee to reinvestigate the January 6 attack, a move that comes as Donald Trump has tried to rewrite the history of the most violent incident in US Capitol history.
Language to set up the Republican-led subcommittee was folded into a larger rule that passed along party lines. The new subcommittee follows Republican claims that the previous Democratic-led committee was biased against Trump.
The vote comes seven months after House speaker Mike Johnson first announced the new subcommittee in January, saying that it will “uncover the full truth that is owed to the American people”.
The new Republican-led subcommittee will be chaired by Barry Loudermilk of Georgia, who will have full subpoena authority. When Loudermilk formally introduced the resolution to establish the subcommittee in July, Johnson said: “House Republicans remain intent on delivering the answers that House Democrats skipped over.”
JD Vance declines to weigh in on Minnesota gun laws
After JD Vance met with families of the victims of the Annunciation church shooting in Minneapolis, the vice-president told reporters he would not weigh in on debates about gun policy in the state.
Asked about Tim Walz, Minnesota governor, calling a special legislative session to consider potential new gun laws, Vance responded:
I’m not going to tell the Minnesota lawmakers or the governor exactly how they should respond to this tragedy … Obviously, there’s a strong desire across the political spectrum to do something so that these shootings are less common. I think that it’s important that they actually take steps … that are going to work. But besides that, I’m not an expert in Minnesota law. I won’t pretend to be. I would just say, take the concerns of these parents seriously. I think all of us, Democrat, Republican and independent, want these school shootings to happen less frequently.”
One mother of a victim who was recovering from surgery cited a proverb suggesting that “thoughts and prayers” are not enough, the AP reported: “When you pray, move your feet.” She continued: “Vice President Vance, you have enormous authority. Please use this moment to move your feet and transcend our political divides to promote peace and unity and hope. This is what the people of the United States will hold you accountable to.”
Vance has previously said he opposes certain gun safety restrictions, including legislation to ban certain semiautomatic rifles and “red flag” laws meant to remove guns from people deemed a threat, ABC reported last year.
Senator’s intelligence meeting canceled after complaints from far-right conspiracy theorist
Mark Warner, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, said a planned classified meeting with a key US spy agency was canceled after complaints from Laura Loomer, a far-right conspiracy theorist.
Warner, a Virginia senator, said he believed the Pentagon called off his visit with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency due to posts from Loomer, an extremist and white nationalist who has reportedly influenced Trump on critical policy matters.
The Pentagon said the meeting would be rescheduled so Republican lawmakers could attend, according to the AP.
Warner, however, said it was “unprecedented and dangerous” for his visit to be canceled in response to Loomer’s criticisms. In a fundraising email, he said the meeting was arranged weeks prior: “Engagements such as these are a core part of my responsibility to provide oversight and support to our intelligence community. And they have never been questioned or politicized … until now.”
“This administration is taking its marching orders from Laura Loomer – a wackjob with a long history of outlandish fringe views, including 9/11 denialism, anti-Muslim harassment campaigns, and associations with white supremacists,” Warner continued.
Warner’s visit was not supposed to be publicized, as it was classified, the New York Times noted. In a meeting with reporters on Wednesday, the senator said: “Is congressional oversight dead? This is a dangerous time.”
White House says it will appeal against Harvard ruling
The Trump administration said it will appeal a judge’s ruling ordering the federal government to reverse cuts of more than $2.6bn in funding to Harvard, the AP reports.
Liz Huston, a White House spokesperson, issued a statement attacking the federal judge, Allison Burroughs, who found that the US government’s cuts to the Ivy League university constituted illegal retaliation. The school lost its funding after it refused to capitulate to the administration’s demands to change policies and governance, part of Trump’s aggressive attacks on higher education.
“Just as President Trump correctly predicted on the day of the hearing, this activist Obama-appointed judge was always going to rule in Harvard’s favor, regardless of the facts,” Huston said. “To any fair-minded observer, it is clear that Harvard university failed to protect their students from harassment and allowed discrimination to plague their campus for years. Harvard does not have a constitutional right to taxpayer dollars and remains ineligible for grants in the future.”
The White House’s continued attacks on federal judges who rule against the administration’s policies have drawn condemnation from Democrats and raised safety concerns for some judges and their families.
A judge’s ruling today that the Trump administration can no longer cut off research funding to Harvard constitutes a major victory for the Ivy League university, which had brought a high-stakes case to defend its independence from the federal government.
Trump has aggressively targeted Harvard and other institutions by claiming they were failing to prevent antisemitism and promoting “radical left” ideologies.
At a cabinet meeting last month, the president told his education secretary not to negotiate with Harvard, saying, “They’ve been very bad,” and that he wanted Harvard to pay “nothing less than $500m” to restore billions in federal grants.
At Harvard, Trump has fought to ban international students and threatened the university’s accreditation.
Judge Allison Burroughs ruled Wednesday that the federal government had illegally terminated roughly $2.2bn in grants in retaliation for the university’s refusal to capitulate to the administration’s demands. The same judge sided with Harvard in another case, saying the Trump administration could not bar the enrollment of international students.
Three other Ivy League schools have made deals with the Trump administration to restore funding. More on today’s decision here:
NAACP sues Missouri over redistricting: ‘Blatant effort to silence Black voters’
The NAACP has filed a lawsuit against the state of Missouri to block the red state’s special legislative session to redraw congressional maps and expand GOP representation.
The civil rights group said in a press release that it was suing to “stop an unlawful attempt to convene a special legislative session aimed at redrawing political maps in ways that would diminish the voting power of Black Missourians”.
The NAACP filed a similar lawsuit in Texas last month to block the state’s redistricting plan, which is expected to add five GOP seats to Congress.
Derrick Johnson, NAACP president, said in a statement:
This case is about defending democracy and protecting the voice of every voter. The Missouri legislature’s attempt to force a rushed, unconstitutional redistricting process in a special session is a blatant effort to silence Black voters and strip them of their fundamental rights. We will not stand by while elected officials manipulate the system to weaken our power and representation.”
The redistricting effort pushed by Mike Kehoe, Missouri’s GOP governor, followed calls by Donald Trump for the state to redraw its maps so it could “elect an additional Maga Republican in the 2026 midterm elections”. States traditionally have only redrawn maps every ten years based on the US census, but Republican efforts to add seats this year, in the middle of the decade, have sparked a redistricting battle with Democrats.
Judge sides with Harvard and orders Trump to reverse funding cuts
A federal judge in Boston has sided with Harvard university in its court battle with the Trump administration, ordering that the federal government reverse funding cuts, the AP reports.
The Trump administration had cut more than $2.6bn in research grants to the school as part of the president’s aggressive attacks on academic institutions.
Judge Allison Burroughs ruled Wednesday the cuts constituted illegal retaliation after Harvard had refused the White House’s demands to change its policies and governance, the AP reported.
Harvard’s complaint, filed in July, said:
This case involves the government’s efforts to use the withholding of federal funding as leverage to gain control of academic decisionmaking at Harvard. All told, the tradeoff put to Harvard and other universities is clear: allow the government to micromanage your academic institution or jeopardize the institution’s ability to pursue medical breakthroughs, scientific discoveries, and innovative solutions.
Federal agents reportedly practicing crowd control in Chicago
Hundreds of federal agents are arriving to the Chicago area for Donald Trump’s deployment, with some already “practicing crowd control with shields and flash-bang grenades”, according to a new report in the Chicago Sun-Times.
Roughly 230 agents, some who work for US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), are arriving from Los Angeles, the newspaper reported, with at least 30 of them training at a naval station near north Chicago.
JB Pritzker, Illinois’ Democratic governor, has strongly condemned the deployment, which the president has claimed is meant to address crime. “Any kind of troops on the streets of an American city don’t belong unless there is an insurrection, unless there is truly an emergency. There is not,” the governor said on Sunday. “I’m going to do everything I can to stop him from taking away people’s rights and from using the military to invade states. I think it’s very important for us all to stand up.”
More than 100 unmarked vehicles have been sent to the Navy training station, the Sun-Times reported.
The deployment of troops and other federal agents in LA caused widespread outrage and protests. Some demonstrations were met with teargas and other munitions. Border patrol agents with CBP were also accused of injuring protesters in LA and were found to have made false statements about demonstrators they arrested.
Louisiana governor says he will ‘take Trump’s help’ in New Orleans
Jeff Landry, the Republican governor of Louisiana, said he backed the president’s threat to send federal troops to his state.
“We will take President @realDonaldTrump’s help from New Orleans to Shreveport!” Landry said on social media, responding to a White House post that said Trump was determining whether to send federal forces to Chicago or New Orleans “where we have a great governor”.
It’s unclear if Landry has formally requested that the president send in troops, and his office did not respond to questions from the Associated Press.
New Orleans, like other cities attacked by Trump, has seen a sharp decline in crime. JP Morrell, president of the New Orleans city council, criticized Trump’s threats of deployment in a statement, saying:
It’s ridiculous to consider sending the National Guard into another American city that hasn’t asked for it. Guardsmen are not trained law enforcement. They can’t solve crimes, they can’t interview witnesses and they aren’t trained to constitutionally police.
Trump’s deployment of troops to US cities has been condemned as authoritarian, with scholars saying the president was increasingly acting like a dictator.
Adam Gabbatt
Eric Adams, the mayor of New York, has denied, sort of, having conversations with the Trump administration about him being given a government job in exchange for dropping his re-election campaign.
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that advisers to Donald Trump “have discussed the possibility” of giving Adams a position, in an attempt to thwart Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old Democratic socialist who is currently the frontrunner to be elected mayor in November.
According to the Times, “intermediaries” for Trump have spoken to “associates” of Adams about leaving the race. Adams, who has proved to be deeply unpopular among New York Democratic voters and is running as an independent candidate, is well behind Mamdani in the polls, and is draining support from Andrew Cuomo, another independent candidate.
There is a suggestion that if Adams, a centrist Democrat, and the Republican candidate, Curtis Sliwa, were to drop out of the race, Cuomo could consolidate enough support to challenge Mamdani. The Times reported that there have been talks in the Trump administration about also finding a job for Sliwa.
Sliwa did not respond when asked about the Times story, but the Adams campaign did reply to the Guardian.
“Mayor Adams has made it clear that he will not respond to every rumor that comes up,” said Todd Shapiro, a spokesman for Adams.
“He has had no discussions with, nor has he met with, President Donald Trump regarding the mayoral race. The Mayor is fully committed to winning this election, with millions of New Yorkers preparing to cast their votes. His record is clear: crime is down, jobs are up, and he has consistently stood up for working families. Mayor Adams is focused on building on that progress and earning four more years to continue delivering for the people of New York.”
On Tuesday a poll found Adams with 9% of the vote in the election – Mamdani was at 42%, Cuomo 26%, and Sliwa 17%. It’s worth noting that the Times story did not claim that Adams himself had discussed leaving the race with Trump.
Rubio: US military will continue targeting vessels belonging to alleged Venezuelan drug cartels
Speaking in Mexico City, Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, warned that the US military would continue to target vessels belonging to alleged Venezuelan drug cartels.
Arguing that previous interdiction efforts in Latin America have not worked, Rubio said: “What will stop them is when you blow them up, when you get rid of them.”
“The president of the United States is going to wage war on narco-terrorist organizations,” Rubio said, adding that the strikes would continue, according to reporters covering the news conference. “It’ll happen again. Maybe it’s happening right now.”
Rubio’s visit to Mexico, his first since taking office, comes after the US military launched what the president said was a “a kinetic strike” on a “drug-carrying boat” in the Caribbean Sea. Trump said 11 drug traffickers were killed in the attack.
Defending Tuesday’s military operation, Rubio said of the Venezuelan vessel: “This one was operating in international waters, headed towards the United States, to flood our nation with poison. And under President Trump those days are over.”
House Republicans help sink motion to censure Democratic congresswoman
A handful of House Republicans helped tank a motion to censure Democratic congresswoman LaMonica McIver of New Jersey stemming from her indictment by a federal grand jury earlier this year for allegedly assaulting law enforcement during an altercation at an immigration facility in her home state – charges she denies.
The censure, brought by Republicans congressman Clay Higgins, was expected to succeed in the GOP-led chamber where the once-rare form of public disapproval is now increasingly common. The House voted 215-207 to set aside the censure resolution, which would have stripped her of her position on the homeland security committee, a role the resolution claimed represented a “significant conflict of interest”.
Nearly a half-dozen Republicans sided with Democrats in voting to table the resolution.
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has crossed the pond and popped up at House judiciary committee, a guest of House Republicans.
His testimony was met with scalding derision by Democrats on the panel, who accused the far-right leader of being a a “Putin-loving free speech impostor” working to “ingratiate yourself with tech bros”. At one point, Congressman Hank Johnson, asked Farage to confirm that Reform currently has four MPs.
Farage, who missed prime minister’s questions to appear before the committee, testified to the “awful authoritarian” situation for free speech in the UK.
Florida surgeon general says state will eliminate vaccine mandates for children
Richard Luscombe
Children in Florida will no longer be required to receive vaccines against preventable diseases including measles, mumps, chicken pox, polio and hepatitis, the state’s surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, announced on Wednesday.
In a speech announcing the move, Ladapo likened vaccine mandates to “slavery”.
Ladapo, hand-picked for the role by Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, is a long-time skeptic of the benefit of vaccines, and has previously been accused of peddling “scientific nonsense” by public health advocates.
In his Wednesday speech he said that every state vaccine requirement would be repealed, and that he expected the move would receive the blessing “of God”.
“All of them. All of them,” Ladapo said. “Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.”
In 2022, Ladapo altered data in a study about Covid-19 vaccines in an attempt to exaggerate the risk to young men who took one.
