AFP USA

Major social media platforms are enabling and profiting from misinformation around extreme weather events, endangering lives and impeding emergency response efforts, a research group said Tuesday.The report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) — which analyzed 100 viral posts on each of three leading platforms during recent natural disasters including deadly Texas floods — highlights how their algorithms amplify conspiracy theorists while sidelining life-saving information.”The influence of high-profile conspiracy theorists during climate disasters is drowning out emergency response efforts,” the report said, adding that the trend was “putting lives at risk.”Nearly all of the analyzed posts on Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram lacked fact-checks or Community Notes, a crowd-sourced verification system increasingly being adopted as an alternative to professional fact-checkers, the report said.Elon Musk-owned X lacked fact-checks or Community Notes on 99 percent of the posts, while Google-owned YouTube “failed entirely,” with zero fact-checks or Community Notes, CCDH said.The report noted that well-known conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s false claims during the LA wildfires amassed more views on X throughout January than the combined reach of major emergency response agencies and news outlets, including the Los Angeles Times.”The rapid spread of climate conspiracies online isn’t accidental. It’s baked into a business model that profits from outrage and division,” said Imran Ahmed, CCDH’s chief executive.During the wildfires, online scammers placed social media advertisements impersonating federal emergency aid agencies to steal victims’ personal information, Ahmed said, citing local officials.”When distraught people can’t distinguish real help from online deception, platforms become complicit in the suffering of innocent people,” he said.The tech platforms did not immediately respond to requests for comment.- ‘Dangerous’ falsehoods -Following natural disasters, misinformation tends to surge across social media — fueled by accounts from across the political spectrum –- as many platforms scale back content moderation and reduce reliance on human fact-checkers, often accused by conservative advocates of a liberal bias.During Hurricane Milton, which struck Florida last year, social media was flooded with baseless claims that the storm had been engineered by politicians using weather manipulation.Similarly, the LA wildfires were falsely blamed on so-called “government lasers,” a conspiracy theory amplified by viral posts.Augustus Doricko, chief executive of cloud seeding company Rainmaker, said he received death threats online after conspiracy theorists blamed him for the devastating floods in Texas.”I can confirm that we have received multiple threats since the flooding event,” Doricko told AFP, highlighting the real-life consequences of such falsehoods.The CCDH study found that the worst offenders spreading extreme weather misinformation were verified users with large followings, many of whom were attempting to monetize their posts.Eighty eight percent of misleading extreme weather posts on X came from verified accounts, CCDH said. On YouTube, 73 percent of such posts originated from verified users, while on Meta, the figure was 64 percent.”Climate disinformation costs lives,” said Sam Bright of DeSmog, which reports on climate misinformation campaigns.”As extreme weather events become more and more frequent, these falsehoods will only get more dangerous.”

Coca-Cola on Tuesday said it would release a version of Coke in the United States made with US-grown real cane sugar, a move requested by President Donald Trump.”We’re going to be bringing a Coke sweetened with US cane sugar into the market this fall, and I think that will be an enduring option for consumers,” said CEO James Quincey on a call with analysts.The company currently uses high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) for many of its US products — a sweetener that has long drawn criticism from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.Trump last week said that the company had agreed to use cane sugar in the United States version of Coke.”This will be a very good move by them — You’ll see. It’s just better!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.Coca-Cola at the time did not confirm the move even if it said it appreciated Trump’s “enthusiasm” for its brand.In announcing the new option, Quincey insisted that the main Coke product would still be made with corn syrup, with the cane sugar version offered as an alternative.Mexican Coke — which is made with cane sugar — is often sold at a premium in US stores and prized for its more “natural” flavor.The US president did not explain what motivated his push for the change, which would not impact his well-known favorite beverage, Diet Coke.Since his return to the White House, Trump has reinstalled a special button in the Oval Office that summons a helping of the sugar-free carbonated drink.HFCS became popular in the 1970s, with its use skyrocketing thanks to government subsidies for corn growers and high import tariffs on cane sugar.Any shift away from corn is likely to draw backlash in the Corn Belt, a Midwestern region that has been a stronghold of support for Trump.Both HFCS and sucrose (cane sugar) are composed of fructose and glucose, but differ at the structural level.Those differences don’t appear to significantly affect health outcomes, according to research.Trump’s preferred Diet Coke is sweetened with aspartame — a compound classified as a “possible carcinogen” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday that he would meet his Chinese counterparts in Stockholm next week for tariff talks, eyeing an extension to a mid-August deadline for levies to snap back to steeper levels.Bessent told Fox Business that he will be speaking with Chinese officials on Monday and Tuesday for a third round of high-level negotiations, to work out what he said would be a likely postponement of the deadline.Washington and Beijing slapped escalating, tit-for-tat levies on each other’s exports earlier this year — reaching triple digit levels — stalling trade between the world’s two biggest economies as tensions surged.But after top officials met in Geneva in May, both sides agreed to temporarily lower their tariff levels in a de-escalation set to expire next month. Officials from the two countries also met in London in June.”That deal expires on August 12, and I’m going to be in Stockholm on Monday and Tuesday with my Chinese counterparts, and we’ll be working out what is likely an extension then,” Bessent said in the interview.He noted that Washington also wanted to speak about a wider range of topics, potentially including Chinese purchases of Iranian and Russian oil.For other economies facing an earlier August 1 deadline for higher US tariffs to kick in, Bessent said he expects the duties will boomerang back up — but signaled Washington would continue negotiations.Trade talks between the United States and China had initially stalled after their Geneva meeting in May, although Bessent said trade is in a good place now with Beijing.Disagreements bubbled to the fore when US officials earlier accused Beijing of violating their pact and slow-walking export license approvals for rare earths — crucial materials for making electronics and other goods.Since then, the two countries have agreed on a framework to move forward with their Geneva consensus.The United States has been seen relaxing certain restrictions on semiconductor sales to China, while Beijing has been reviewing applications for export licenses of controlled items. Since returning to the White House in January, President Donald Trump has imposed a sweeping 10 percent tariff on allies and competitors alike, alongside steeper levels on steel, aluminum and autos.The 10 percent blanket rate is expected to increase for dozens of economies — although not China — come August 1, unless they reach an agreement with Washington to avert this outcome.So far, the Trump administration has only announced deals with Britain, Vietnam and Indonesia. But Bessent maintained Tuesday that more pacts are to come.

Stephen Colbert had an unflinching message for US President Donald Trump in his first broadcast since his “Late Show” was cancelled amid a political firestorm — “the gloves are off.”Colbert, who addressed the cancellation of his show by a broadcaster that has been widely accused of seeking to curry favor with Trump for business reasons, came out swinging — telling Trump to “go fuck yourself.””The Late Show,” a storied US TV franchise dating back to 1993 when it was hosted by David Letterman, will go off the air in May 2026 following a surprise announcement by broadcaster CBS last week.The channel is part of Paramount, which is in the throes of an $8 billion takeover that requires approval by the Trump-controlled Federal Communications Commission. It pulled the plug three days after Colbert skewered CBS for settling a lawsuit with Trump.He accused it of paying what he termed a “a big fat bribe” of $16 million to the president for what he called “deceptive” editing of an interview with his 2024 election opponent, former vice president Kamala Harris.Trump reveled in the firing of one of his most prolific detractors, posting on his Truth Social platform that “I absolutely love that Colbert was fired.”Colbert joked Monday that it had always been his dream starting out as an improv comic in Chicago in the 1980s to have a sitting president celebrate the end of his career.He also disputed the logic of CBS who insisted the cancellation was “purely a financial decision.”He said that in an anonymous leak over the weekend, CBS had appeared to suggest his show lost $40 million last year.Colbert joked that he could account for losing $24 million annually — but wasn’t to blame for the other $16 million, a reference to CBS News’s settlement with Trump.Monday’s cold open was an unsparing riff on Trump demanding that the Washington Commanders change its name back to its former name which was widely considered a slur against Native Americans.The segment suggested Trump sought to rename the franchise the “Washington Epsteins”, in reference to pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein whom it has been widely reported was close to Trump.Colbert returned to this topic after addressing his show’s cancellation, proclaiming that they had killed his show but not him, and doing a deep dive on reporting about just how close Trump and Epstein were.It was a formula that would have been familiar to fans of the show: the deadly serious leavened with humor and quick wit.Outside the taping at Midtown Manhattan’s Ed Sullivan theater, protesters held placards that said “Colbert Stays! Trump Must Go!”Audience member Elizabeth Kott, a 48-year-old high school teacher, called Colbert’s firing “terrible.” “It’s really awful that it’s come to that in this country, where companies feel the need to obey in advance. It’s really awful,” she told AFP.- ‘A plague on CBS’ -Colbert’s lead guest Monday, acclaimed actress Sandra Oh, did not hold back, proclaiming a “plague on CBS and Paramount” — the network on which Colbert’s channel is broadcast and its media giant proprietor.Colbert’s lip trembled as Oh paid tribute to his work speaking truth to power while staying funny.His other guest, actor Dave Franco, said he had loved Colbert’s work in everything from “The Daily Show” to “The Colbert Report” and then “The Late Show.”It was on “The Daily Show,” under the supervision of comic “anchor” Jon Stewart, that Colbert perfected his alter-ego — a blowhard conservative reporter whose studied ignorance parodied actual right-wing broadcasters night after night.He moved up to a show of his own on the same network, Comedy Central, which was then part of Viacom and today is part of Paramount.Before long he took one of the most coveted chairs in US television — host of the CBS late-night slot.Colbert dropped his arrogant conservative persona and cultivated a reputation as one of the most trusted yet funniest figures on US television.Through the coronavirus pandemic he became a reassuring presence for millions, broadcasting from a spare room in his house and narrating the challenges he faced alongside his wife Evelyn.He also became an arch-critic of Trump, skewering the president for everything from his policies to his fondness for Hannibal Lecter.Skipping a promised question and answer session following the taping of Monday’s show, Colbert told his studio audience that “I was nervous coming out here.””I will miss you.”

Venezuela announced a probe Monday into torture claims by 252 migrants the United States had sent to a notorious Salvadoran prison where they said they were beaten, sexually abused and fed rotten food.Attorney General Tarek William Saab presented photos and testimonies at a news conference in Caracas of some of the men, who said they had feared not making it out alive.Several had bruises on their bodies, marks of being shot with rubber bullets, and one had a split lip.Andry Hernandez Romero, a 32-year-old beautician among those sent to the notorious CECOT prison as part of US President Donald Trump’s migrant crackdown, said he barely survived the ordeal.”We were going through torture, physical aggressions, psychological aggressions,” he said in a video presented by Saab.”I was sexually abused.”Saab said the prosecutor’s office was interviewing the returned migrants.Many spoke of being held in “inhuman cells,” deprived of sunlight and ventilation, and given rotten food and unsafe drinking water.The men had no access to lawyers or their relatives, and the last time many of them were seen was when President Nayib Bukele’s government issued photos of them arriving at the prison shackled and with their heads shorn.- ‘Mom, it’s Mervin’ -By Monday afternoon, the migrants had not yet been reunited with their families.Officials said they were undergoing medical exams, being issued with new Venezuelan ID cards, and interviewed by the prosecutor’s office.Mercedes Yamarte, 46, told AFP she was preparing a welcome party for her 29-year-old son Mervin — one of the men released from the prison Bukele built as part of his mass anti-gang crackdown.She had put up balloons, banners and prepared food at their home in a poor neighborhood of Maracaibo in northern Venezuela, but had no idea when to expect him.At lunchtime on Monday, she received a call, and heard the words: “Mom, it’s Mervin.””I hadn’t heard my son’s voice in four months and seven days, listening to him was a joy, a joy I cannot describe,” she told AFP.- Crimes against humanity -The men were accused in the United States of being gang members and flown in March to El Salvador, after Trump invoked rarely used wartime laws to deport the men without court hearings.Their treatment elicited an international outcry.Saab said the Venezuelan investigation would target Bukele and other Salvadoran officials for alleged crimes against humanity.And he urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the UN Human Rights Council to act.The men were freed last Friday and flown back home in what the Trump administration said was an exchange for 10 Americans or US residents and dozens of “political prisoners” held in Venezuela.President Nicolas Maduro on his TV show Monday claimed Bukele had tried “last minute” to prevent the migrants from leaving.”You could not stop the first plane, but for the second plane he put some car on the runway… to provoke either an accident or prevent them from leaving,” he said. Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado labeled the process as an “exchange of prisoners of war” during a television interview Monday.Venezuela itself faces an investigation by the ICC in The Hague, with similar allegations of torturing prisoners and denying them access to legal representation.Hundreds of people are held for political reasons in Venezuela, according to rights group Foro Penal.Some 2,400 people were arrested, 28 killed and 200 injured in a crackdown on protests that broke out last July after Maduro claimed victory in elections he is widely accused of having stolen.On Sunday, Maduro’s government insisted negotiations for the migrants’ release were held “only with the United States of America” and not “the clown” Bukele. 

The ceasefire that ended Iran’s 12-day war with Israel has held for nearly a month without incident, but many Iranians remain uneasy, struggling with uncertainty as fears of another confrontation linger.”I don’t think this ceasefire will last,” said Peyman, a 57-year-old resident of Shiraz in Iran’s south, one of numerous cities hit last month as Israel unleashed an unprecedented bombing campaign against its staunch rival.The Israeli offensive targeted key nuclear facilities and military sites, killing top commanders and nuclear scientists and hundreds of other people, while also wreaking havoc in some residential areas.The attacks triggered the fiercest fighting in history between the longtime foes, ending with a ceasefire announced on June 24.But Israel has signalled it could return to fighting if Iran attempts to rebuild nuclear facilities or carry out any actions deemed a threat, such as moving to develop an atomic bomb — an ambition Tehran has consistently denied it was pursuing.Iran, in turn, has vowed to deliver a harsh response if attacked again.Nuclear diplomacy with the United States — which briefly joined the war with strikes on key Iranian nuclear sites — has stalled, deepening a sense of uncertainty about what lies ahead.”I am scared the war would start again,” said Hamid, a 54-year-old government employee who gave only his first name.”It will lead to the death of more innocent people and the destruction of the country’s infrastructure.”During the war, Israel struck major Iranian cities including the capital Tehran, hitting military sites, government buildings and the state television headquarters.More than 1,000 people were killed in Iran, according to authorities. Retaliatory missile and drone attacks killed 29 people in Israel.- ‘Don’t want to flee again’ -Many residents fled Tehran, seeking refuge in other parts of the country, even though few regions were untouched by the blasts and smoke-covered skies.Nearly a month later, a series of fires that broke out across Iran in recent days — including one at a major oil facility — have triggered speculations which officials were quick to dismiss, denying any acts of sabotage.”This war really frightened me,” said 78-year-old housewife Golandam Babaei, from the western Kermanshah province.She lived through the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, a painful memory for many of her generation.”I kept telling myself, please God, do not let the past repeat itself,” Babaei told AFP.The war with Israel, although much shorter and fought mostly with air strikes and missiles rather than by ground forces, revived grim memories of the conflict with Iraq.That war, triggered by an Iraqi invasion in 1980, killed an estimated 500,000 people on both sides.It featured chemical warfare and prolonged front-line bombardments, scarring Iranians in the then-nascent Islamic republic born out of the 1979 revolution.Since then, for decades, Iran had managed to keep conflicts away from its territory. But now after the 12-day war with Israel, some Iranians feel a profound sense of vulnerability.”I kept thinking I don’t want to flee again, we have nowhere to go. I cannot run to the mountains like the past,” said Babaei.- Uncertain future -For Ali Khanzadi, a 62-year-old war veteran, the conflict with Israel highlighted a change compared to the 1980s when “we didn’t have any advanced military equipment” to fight the Iraqis.Khanzadi, who was wounded in battle in 1983, said that the war with Israel, while much shorter, had a more sinister dimension.Unlike in the past, modern military technology means “they can kill a child in his sleep remotely using a drone,” he said.In the face of the Israeli threats and attacks, Iranian authorities have repeatedly invoked national unity.Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said the offensive was aimed at toppling the Islamic republic’s clerical system, and urged Iranian diplomats and military officials to proceed with “care and precision” as the country cautiously moves on.Tehran has said it remained open to nuclear diplomacy with the United States which the war had derailed, but officials have expressed concerns over renewed attacks and demanded unspecified US guarantees to resume negotiations.Ordinary Iranians appear to share fears that the conflict could erupt again.”I hope that this will not happen,” said Hamid.Babaei said she was praying “for peace, for us to remain safe in our homes”.

When it comes to AI, many parents navigate between fear of the unknown and fear of their children missing out.”It’s really hard to predict anything over five years,” said Adam Tal, an Israeli marketing executive and father of two boys aged seven and nine, when describing the post-generative AI world.Tal is “very worried” about the future this technology holds for his children — whether it’s deepfakes, “the inability to distinguish between reality and AI,” or “the thousands of possible new threats that I wasn’t trained to detect.”Mike Brooks, a psychologist from Austin, Texas, who specializes in parenting and technology, worries that parents are keeping their heads in the sand, refusing to grapple with AI.”They’re already overwhelmed with parenting demands,” he observed — from online pornography and TikTok to video games and “just trying to get them out of their rooms and into the real world.”For Marc Watkins, a professor at the University of Mississippi who focuses on AI in teaching, “we’ve already gone too far” to shield children from AI past a certain age.Yet some parents are still trying to remain gatekeepers to the technology.”In my circle of friends and family, I’m the only one exploring AI with my child,” remarked Melissa Franklin, mother of a 7-year-old boy and law student in Kentucky.”I don’t understand the technology behind AI,” she said, “but I know it’s inevitable, and I’d rather give my son a head start than leave him overwhelmed.”- ‘Benefits and risks’ -The path is all the more difficult for parents given the lack of scientific research on AI’s effects on users.Several parents cite a study published in June by MIT, showing that brain activity and memory were more stimulated in individuals not using generative AI than in those who had access to it.”I’m afraid it will become a shortcut,” explained a father of three who preferred to remain anonymous. “After this MIT study, I want them to use it only to deepen their knowledge.”This caution shapes many parents’ approaches. Tal prefers to wait before letting his sons use AI tools. Melissa Franklin only allows her son to use AI with her supervision to find information “we can’t find in a book, through Google, or on YouTube.”For her, children must be encouraged to “think for themselves,” with or without AI.But one father — a computer engineer with a 15-year-old — doesn’t believe kids will learn AI skills from their parents anyway.”That would be like claiming that kids learn how to use TikTok from their parents,” he said. It’s usually “the other way around.”Watkins, himself a father, says he is “very concerned” about the new forms that generative AI is taking, but considers it necessary to read about the subject and “have in-depth conversations about it with our children.””They’re going to use artificial intelligence,” he said, “so I want them to know the potential benefits and risks.”The CEO of AI chip giant Nvidia, Jensen Huang, often speaks of AI as “the greatest equalization force that we have ever known,” democratizing learning and knowledge.But Watkins fears a different reality: “Parents will view this as a technology that will be used if you can afford it, to get your kid ahead of everyone else.”The computer scientist father readily acknowledged this disparity, saying “My son has an advantage because he has two parents with PhDs in computer science, but that’s 90 percent due to the fact that we are more affluent than average” — not their AI knowledge.”That does have some pretty big implications,” Watkins said.

A US federal judge on Monday rejected an appeal for leniency by the Justice Department and sentenced an ex-police officer to 33 months in prison for violating the civil rights of a Black woman whose 2020 killing fueled widespread protests.Brett Hankison, a former Louisville police department detective, was convicted by a jury in Kentucky in November of one count of abusing Breonna Taylor’s civil rights for shots fired during a botched police raid on her home.In an unusual intervention, Harmeet Dhillon, the head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, had asked Judge Rebecca Jennings last week to sentence Hankison to time served — the single day he spent in jail at the time of his arrest.But Jennings, who was appointed to the bench by US President Donald Trump during his first term as president, rejected the recommendation and said she was troubled by the prosecutor’s sentencing memorandum and arguments for leniency, the Louisville Courier Journal said.She sentenced him to 33 months in prison and three years of supervised release. Hankison faced a maximum penalty of life in prison.The deaths of Taylor, 26, and George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis in May 2020, became the focus of a wave of mass protests in the United States and beyond against racial injustice and police brutality.Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were sleeping in her Louisville apartment around midnight on March 13, 2020, when they heard a noise at the door.Walker, believing it was a break-in, fired his gun, wounding a police officer.Police, who had obtained a controversial no-knock search warrant to make a drug arrest, fired more than 30 shots back, mortally wounding Taylor.Hankison fired 10 shots during the raid, some into a neighboring apartment, but did not hit anyone. He is the only police officer convicted in connection with the raid.Dhillon, in her sentencing memorandum to the judge, had argued that a lengthy prison term for Hankison would be “unjust.””Hankison did not shoot Ms. Taylor and is not otherwise responsible for her death,” she said. “Hankison did not wound her or anyone else at the scene that day, although he did discharge his duty weapon ten times blindly into Ms Taylor’s home.”Responding to Monday’s verdict, the Taylor family’s lawyers noted that while the sentence did not “fully reflect the severity of the harm caused,” it was “more than what the Department of Justice sought.””We respect the court’s decision, but we will continue to call out the DOJ’s failure to stand firmly behind Breonna’s rights and the rights of every Black woman whose life is treated as expendable,” they said in a statement.In May, the Justice Department announced that it was dropping lawsuits filed by the administration of former president Joe Biden against police forces in Louisville and Minneapolis that accused them of using excessive force and racial discrimination.

A federal judge on Monday challenged the Trump administration’s reasons for slashing billions of dollars in federal funding to Harvard University, triggering a furious response from the president.Judge Allison Burroughs pressed the administration’s lawyer to explain how cutting grants to diverse research budgets would help protect students from alleged campus anti-Semitism, US media reported.Trump preemptively fired off a post on his Truth Social platform blasting Burroughs, an appointee of Democratic president Barack Obama, claiming without evidence that she had already decided against his government — and vowing to appeal.The Ivy League institution sued in April to restore more than $2 billion in frozen funds. The administration insists its move is legally justified over Harvard’s failure to protect Jewish and Israeli students, particularly amid campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.The threat to Harvard’s funding stream forced it to implement a hiring freeze while pausing ambitious research programs, particularly in the public health and medical spheres, that experts warned risked American lives.Harvard has argued that the administration is pursuing “unconstitutional retaliation” against it and several other universities targeted by Trump early in his second term.Both sides have sought a summary judgment to avoid trial, but it was unclear if Burroughs would grant one either way.The judge pressed the lone lawyer representing Trump’s administration to explain how cutting funding to Harvard’s broad spectrum of research related to combatting anti-Semitism, the Harvard Crimson student newspaper reported from court.”The Harvard case was just tried in Massachusetts before an Obama appointed Judge. She is a TOTAL DISASTER, which I say even before hearing her Ruling,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.”Harvard has $52 Billion Dollars sitting in the Bank, and yet they are anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and anti-America,” he claimed, pointing to the university’s world-leading endowment.Both Harvard and the American Association of University Professors brought cases against the Trump administration’s measures which were combined and heard Monday.- ‘Control of academic decision making’ -Trump has sought to have the case heard in the Court of Federal Claims instead of in the federal court in Boston, just miles away from the heart of the university’s Cambridge campus.”This case involves the Government’s efforts to use the withholding of federal funding as leverage to gain control of academic decision making at Harvard,” Harvard said in its initial filing.The Ivy League institution has been at the forefront of Trump’s campaign against top universities after it defied his calls to submit to oversight of its curriculum, staffing, student recruitment and “viewpoint diversity.”Trump and his allies claim that Harvard and other prestigious universities are unaccountable bastions of liberal, anti-conservative bias and anti-Semitism, particularly surrounding protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.The government has also targeted Harvard’s ability to host international students, an important source of income who accounted for 27 percent of total enrollment in the 2024-2025 academic year.A proclamation issued in June declared that the entrance of international students to begin a course at Harvard would be “suspended and limited” for six months and that existing overseas enrollees could have their visas terminated.The move has been halted by a judge.The US government earlier this month subpoenaed Harvard University for records linked to students allegedly involved in a wave of pro-Palestinian student protests that the Trump administration labeled anti-Semitic.Washington has also told a university accrediting body that Harvard’s certification should be revoked after it allegedly failed to protect Jewish students in violation of federal civil rights law.

The White House on Monday barred The Wall Street Journal from traveling with US President Donald Trump during his upcoming visit to Scotland, after the newspaper reported that he wrote a bawdy birthday message to his former friend, alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The move comes after Trump on Friday sued the WSJ and its media magnate owner Rupert Murdoch for at least $10 billion over the allegation in the article, which Trump denies.The Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein case has threatened to split the Republican’s far-right Make America Great Again (MAGA) base, with some of his supporters calling for a full release of the so-called “Epstein Files.”The punishment of the Wall Street Journal marks at least the second time the Trump administration has moved to exclude a major news outlet from the press pool over its reporting, having barred Associated Press journalists from multiple key events since February.”As the appeals court confirmed, The Wall Street Journal or any other news outlet are not guaranteed special access to cover President Trump in the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One, and in his private workspaces,” said Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.”Due to The Wall Street Journal’s fake and defamatory conduct, they will not be one of the thirteen outlets on board (Air Force One).”Trump departs this weekend for Scotland, where he owns two golf resorts and will meet with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Earlier this month, the US Department of Justice, under Trump-appointed Attorney General Pam Bondi, said there was no evidence suggesting disgraced financier Epstein had kept a “client list” or was blackmailing powerful figures before his death in 2019.In its story on Thursday, the WSJ reported that Trump had written a suggestive birthday letter to Epstein in 2003, illustrated with a naked woman and alluding to a shared “secret.”Epstein, a longtime friend of Trump and multiple other high-profile men, was found hanging dead in a New York prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges that he sexually exploited dozens of underage girls at his homes in New York and Florida.The case sparked conspiracy theories, especially among Trump’s far-right voters, about an alleged international cabal of wealthy pedophiles. Epstein’s death — declared a suicide — before he could face trial supercharged that narrative.Since returning to power in January, Trump has moved to increase control over the press covering the White House.In February, the Oval Office stripped the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) of its nearly century-old authority to oversee which outlets have access to certain restricted presidential events, with Trump saying that he was now “calling the shots” on media access.In a statement, the WHCA president urged the White House to “restore” the Journal to the pool.”This attempt by the White House to punish a media outlet whose coverage it does not like is deeply troubling, and it defies the First Amendment,” said WHCA President Weijia Jiang.”Government retaliation against news outlets based on the content of their reporting should concern all who value free speech and an independent media.”